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Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Friday became the first Indian wicketkeeper to captain the Test team after Anil Kumble failed a fitness test hours before the third and final cricket Test against South Africa.
Kumble, who was to undergo the fitness test on Thursday, had postponed it to this morning hoping to recover fully from a groin injury which he picked up during the series.
Even in the Ahmedabad match, Kumble had to take a fitness test but had decided to play the match which India lost by an innings and 90 runs within three days.
Dhoni, who is India's one-day and Twenty20 captain, gets the opportunity to display his leadership skills in the longest version of the game. But it was hardly the perfect start as he lost the toss on a wicket which was expected to deteriorate rapidly.
Kumble's absence gave young leg-spinner Piyush Chawla an opportunity to return to the Test team after a long gap, though he has been in and out of the ODI team in recent times.
This will be his first Test since his debut in March 2006.
The Indians made three changes to the team that suffered the humiliating defeat in Ahmedabad with Yuvraj Singh and fit-again Ishant Sharma returning to the side in place of R P Singh and Irfan Pathan.
The South Africans retained the same team that did duty in Ahmedabad.
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Barcelona edged their way into the semi-finals of the Champions League with another 1-0 win over Schalke 04, on a goal from Yaya Toure.
The tight win Wednesday puts Barca into the semis on a 2-0 aggregate result, because they won 1-0 in Gelsenkirchen last Tuesday - and will give a little breathing space to embattled coach Frank Rijkaard.
In the semi-finals Barca will face Manchester United, who disposed of AS Roma in Wednesday's other quarter-final.
Barca midfielder Xavi Hernandez said after the game, "They pressed us really hard in the first half, but we were better in the second, when they seemed to get tired."
Xavi added that the semi-final against United would be "really handsome, because they like to play good football the same as us".
Barca president Joan Laporta then said that "we are very happy to have achieved this...without several important players", referring to South Americans Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho and Deco.
Laporta said that he was "fighting against the defeatism installed in certain sectors of the club", in reference to his many opponents at the club.
"We need to be united," he added, "in order to achieve what we all want: to get to the final."
Schalke turned in a spirited display in the Camp Nou, in front of 8,000 of their own fans, but lacked the quality to break down a Barca defence well marshalled by Carles Puyol.
Mirko Slomka's side made an aggressive side but failed to create any clear chances. In contrast, Xavi forced a sharp save from Manuel Neuer in the 12th minute, after being exquisitely put through by Andres Iniesta.
Barca always looked more dangerous and it was little surprise when they took the lead in the 43rd minute, thanks to a veritable comedy of errors in the German defence.
Teenager Bojan Krkic centred from the right, Schalke defender Marcelo Bordon badly sliced his clearance, team-mate Mladen Krstajic headed the ball off the line - but only for Toure to follow up and score with a left-foot volley.
The bizarre goal gave Barca the confidence they had lacked in the first half, and the hosts rediscovered part of their old flowing style after the interval.
Neuer, whose mistake in the first game gifted the match to Barcelona, but could do nothing to stop Toure's shot, said he was disappointed that they had gone out.
"We are disappointed that we have gone out. We were just not lucky on the day and they had the luck that we were missing. We tried everything going forward but just missed using our chances."
He said it made no sense to blame his defenders for the goal. "When the goal is scored it is too late to talk about it. We are a team and we win as a team and we lose as a team."
The only bad news for Barca was that Puyol will miss the semi-final first leg after picking up another yellow card - and that Thierry Henry continues to be a sluggish shadow of the Arsenal idol of a few years ago.
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South Africa were 80 for one in their first innings at lunch on the first day of the final Test against India in Kanpur.
Graeme Smith with 31 and Hashim Amla with 11 were batting at the break.
The South African openers, Graeme Smith and McKenzie, played cautiously to give a solid start to the visitors before Chawla got rid of McKenzie with a gem of a flighted delivery and provided the much-needed breakthough.
Earlier, South Africa captain Graeme Smith won the toss and elected to bat.
Anil Kumble was ruled out of the final Test because of a groin injury.
The 37-year-old leg spinner, India's most successful bowler, failed to recover from a groin strain, leaving one-day skipper Mahendra Dhoni to lead the team for the first time in Tests.
India included leg-spinner Piyush Chawla for Kumble and recalled fit-against paceman Ishant Sharma and batsman Yuvraj Singh.
The tourists lead 1-0 after crushing India by an innings and 90 runs on a lively pitch in the second Test in Ahmedabad, a victory that brought them close to claiming an Asian treble after wins in Pakistan in November and Bangladesh last month.
It is an unusual scenario for India, who have not lost a home series for almost four years. The last time they succumbed to a visiting team was in 2004 when Australia won the four-match series 2-1. Now captain Anil Kumble faces the same situation Sourav Ganguly had encountered then.
Stats
Graeme Smith, with a win at Green Park, Kanpur, would be establishing a South African record for most Test wins, overtaking Hansie Cronje's tally of 27 Test wins.
In case of a South African win or a drawn game, they would be the first team in 26 years to beat India twice in India. South Africa had defeated India 2-0 in 1999-00.
Rahul Dravid (1085 at an average of 36.16 in 17 Tests) needs 118 runs to overtake Sachin Tendulkar's aggregate of 1202 (ave.35.35) in 20 Tests and to become the leading run-getter in India-South Africa Tests.
Teams:
India: Wasim Jaffer, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly, Vangipurappu Laxman, Yuvraj Singh, Mahendra Dhoni (captain), Harbhajan Singh, Piyush Chawla, Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma.
South Africa: Graeme Smith (captain), Neil McKenzie, Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers, Ashwell Prince, Mark Boucher, Morne Morkel, Paul Harris, Dale Steyn, Makhaya Ntini.
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