Omar Henry, the first non-white cricketer to play for South Africa, was at Kingsmead for the second Test against India. The Indian Express' Aditya Iyer caught up with him and learned of how he defied the odds by making his debut at 40 years old, and that he opposes quota because he believes a black person should play for the country only if he deserves it.

"In 1990, we heard that maybe South Africa will be allowed to return to the arena. The hope brought me back from Scotland, who I was representing at that time, and I started playing in Free State under a 19-year old boy called Hansie Cronje, who inspired me to do well. Two years later, in our very first Test match, I was in the playing XI,” Henry says, before adding, “After baking a cake for 18 years, I finally got the cherry on top.”

In the Hindustan Times, Pradeep Magazine muses on the paradox between VVS Laxman's bull-like frame and silky-smooth batting.

Like Joseph Conrad's enigmatic yet heroic fictional character, Lord Jim, VVS Laxman too is "an inch, perhaps two under six feet, powerfully built and he advances straight at you with a slight stoop of the shoulders, head forward and a fixed from-under stare", except that he does not remind you of a "charging bull" but of a man who is a little apologetic about his intimidating physique.

India have levelled the three-Test series against South Africa with an 87-run win in Durban. Writing in the DNA, Sanjjeev K Samyal says that though India have been long known as tigers at home but lambs abroad, they have turned things around in 2010 capping it off with a fantastic win in Durban, and have proved themselves worthy of being the No. 1 Test team in the world.

It was the biggest year in Indian cricket. For the first-time ever, our cricketers were in an unfamiliar position of being the favourites each time they played a Test. Thanks mainly to Laxman, Tendulkar, Khan and Harbhajan, the team did not do its cause any harm by fighting back every time their reputation was at stake

Writing on his blog Siddhartha Vaidyanathan says that the Durban win is very special because it shows just how far India have come in 14 years.

Fourteen years down the road, we’ve no doubt come a long, long way. Hammered in the first Test and put into bat on a green pitch, against a potent pace attack, which includes arguably the best bowler in the world, India have responded in a most inspiring fashion. Deprived of any warm-up games, they’ve adjusted to the conditions and shown the kind of character that one never saw in the ‘90s

VVS Laxman was declared the Man of the Match in the Durban Test. Writing in the Telegraph, Mukul Kesavan says Laxman is Indian batsmanship’s embodiment of grace under pressure.

Just as Gavaskar begat Tendulkar, Viswanath made Laxman possible. The radiance of that 281 makes an alternative batting lineage visible, one in which greatness is measured by epic deeds, not consistency

Sachin Tendulkar is the greatest Indian of our time, says Open magazine, and now that all words have been exhausted, they use a graphic tribute to celebrate his greatness

Peter Roebuck, writing in the Hindu, says India's preparation for the three-Test series in South Africa has been amateurish even though some of their players got there early.

By arriving a few days before the start of the campaign the Indians have reduced their chances of toppling their hosts. They are not playing a bunch of ne'er do wells but the second-ranked side in the world, and a team eager for an execution. Moreover the sides are competing for the title recently vacated by an Australia line-up that had ruled for 15 years and is now suffering a partial eclipse.