VVS Laxman ranks Durban "up there" with the best wins of his career, especially because on the first day the batsmen had to counter "one of the most challenging wickets I have played on in my career".
"If you beat South Africa on definitely the quickest and bounciest wicket in the country, it gives you that much additional joy," Laxman said, a day after India finished the series-levelling 87-run win. "Everyone talks about Durban being the place where South Africa puts the opposition under pressure, even though the results haven't been going their way recently. It gives us a lot of satisfaction to have beaten them in these conditions."
Laxman said the conditions in Durban were the supreme test of India's batsmen's skill and temperament. "You have got a pace-bowling attack that is one of the best in the world at the moment. Then the conditions were ideal for them, where the ball was seaming, and there was bounce that we are not used to because most of the time we play on subcontinent wickets. Even abroad you don't usually get wickets that have such steep bounce. Test match cricket is all about challenging the skill you have got, and the temperament you have got. And this was one of the most challenging wickets I have played on in my career."
Until Ashwell Prince scored 39 in South Africa's second innings, the game's top two scores belonged to Laxman: 96 and 38. It took a stunning catch to stop him at 38 in the first innings. His patience, his skill, his technique stood apart from the 11 other specialist batsmen and two wicketkeeper-batsmen on show. And again, as has increasingly become Laxman's wont, he added runs with the tail.
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