Kanpur: Believe it or not, South Africa?s preparations for the ongoing tour of India included an endurance test for all XIV players at the Chamber of Mines in Johannesburg.

According to a well-placed source of The Telegraph, Graeme Smith and Co. each spent half-an-hour in conditions where the temperature was around 35 degrees and humidity in the region of 80 per cent.

?The players went through a series of exercises meant to assess the miners? endurance... It was tough, yes, but everybody still enjoyed the experience,? the source added. Apparently, nobody flunked.

Except that trip to Johannesburg, the India-bound squad trained (between November 4 and 11) at the United Cricket Board?s High Performance Centre in the University of Pretoria.

Gary Kirsten, by the way, was present during the first day-and-half and on the last two days. Besides working with a group, Kirsten had exclusive sessions with some batsmen, including Andrew Hall...

That the players had to get up at 5.00 am, to enable their body ?prepare? for the three-and-half hour time difference, points to the thoroughness of their build-up.

Significantly, the wickets were underprepared and no repair work was done during the camp. That made heavy demands on batsmen and, at stumps here on Monday, Smith is understood to have quipped the ball ?turned more? in Pretoria!

The preparation, of course, has helped: South Africa?s first innings? 510 for nine declared is that country?s highest in India. The previous best was 479 in Bangalore during the 1999-2000 series.