Cape Town, is a
coastal city in South Africa. As the
seat of the Parliament of South Africa, it is also the legislative capital of
the country. The city was named the World Design Capital
for 2014 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design. Located
on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town was first developed by the Dutch East
India Company as a supply station for
Dutch ships sailing to East Africa, India, and the Far East. Jan van Riebeeck's
arrival in 1652 established the first
permanent European settlement in South Africa.
The rival captains sport tattoos. To Du Plessis, all his tattoos, are stories
of his life. He has one on the side of his ribs which reads ‘Grace’ as he feels
that his life has changed by the grace of God. He has a quarter sleeve on his
arm which deciphers all the important events in his life. The one on the inside
of his arm was the day he made his debut for South Africa and above that ‘A day
from the Lord’ is written in Latin. On the side he has a compass directed
towards the Adelaide Oval where he made his Test debut. It also has the dates
of his marriage ! ~ Indian skipper Virat Kohli too has many
tattoos and perhaps thought that he had an even better day than what an ardent
fan could dream about this match.
Indian Express photo
Before that Murali Vijay and Ravi Ashwin traveling might
have seen scenes similar to Chennai – people standing with plastic pots for
water. There is sever water shortage and
the team India in Cape Town has been officially asked to not
use the shower for more than two minutes. It’s one of the several water
conservation messages that the Indian cricketers came across on reaching their
hotel after a sweaty and tiring day under the relentless sun. With many in the
Indian team hailing from areas with water problems, they understand the
severity of the situation, but they aren’t quite timing their baths as of now. The
unusually dry winter, the dipping underground water level and the dangerously
shrinking dam level has resulted in Cape Town pressing the panic button by
enforcing crisis Level 6 water restrictions. These are a strings of curbs to
make every drop count.
In such times, Cape Town sees the irony of calling the Test
between the top two teams a “mouth-watering contest”. Indians had that drooling as they had SA
reeling at 12/3. Now the score card
reads : South Africa 286 (De Villiers
65, Du Plessis 62, Bhuvneshwar 4-87) v India 28/3 ~ but can they recover the
way, the Proteas did ?
Faf du Plessis confessed he had a score to settle, and so he
armed himself with four fast bowlers the envy of the world. Virat Kohli saw
Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander during warm-ups. India
too had 4 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah making his debut
and Hardik Pandya. Bhuvi struck with the
third ball of the series, and then struck again in each of his next two overs,
providing India with one of their best starts ever in an overseas series. It was
the earliest wicket for India on tour since Kapil Dev dismissed Jimmy Cook off
the first ball of the first Test in the 1992-93 series in Durban.
From 12/3 (Dean Elgar, AK Markram & Hashim Amla gone); SA
recovered to 142/3, eventually all out for 286.
Bhuvneshwar took 4, while Ravichandran Ashwin who was given only 7
overs, polished the tail, taking 2. SA
played their first ever test in Mar 1889, at Port Elizabeth ~ and were beaten
by England by 8 wickets. India
was the first team to tour South Africa in 1992, after South Africa was reinducted
into international cricket after the end
of Apartheid era. That series was called the Friendship Series. Mohammad
Azharuddin was India captain while South Africa were led by Clive Rice. Indians have South African connection prior
to that also.
Gandhi arrived in
Durban in 1893 aboard the SS Safari.
Dada Abdulla, whose firm had hired him to act on its behalf in a commercial
dispute with a family member, awaited him on the wharf. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi arrived in South
Africa at the relatively tender age of 24 as a newly qualified lawyer on a
temporary assignment. By the time Gandhi
left South Africa for the last time in 1914, he had already earned the
appellation Mahatma for his work in securing significant legal concessions for
the local Indian population in South Africa.
SA was to play their 2nd
test at Capetown in 1889 and it was a match to be remembered for Johnny Briggs
- the slow left-arm spinner from
Lancashire, who was to become the first
man to scale the 100-wicket peak later in the fourth Ashes Test at Sydney. In that 2nd test of the Series at
Capetown, England were bundled out for 292 ! ~ yet won the
match by an innings and 202 runs as South Africa made scores of 47 &
43. Johnny Briggs had figures of
19.1-11-17-7 and 14.2-5-11-8 !!!
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
5th Jan 2018.
