South Africa skipper Dean Elgar had tried to rouse his team going into the Cape Town Test by calling it their biggest match in 10-15 years. But the significance of the legacy for Indian cricket if they win here and clinch their first series in the country seemed to impel the visitors on a rivetting Day 2 of the final Test on Wednesday.
India have had a magical year-and-a-quarter in Tests, winning a second straight series in Australia and taking a 2-1 lead in England with the final game set for July. How India’s batters complement the tremendous fight showed by their pace attack will help set up this Test on Day 3.
Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara dug in to see through the final overs and a lot will rest on their shoulders on the third day. Already 22 wickets have tumbled in the 171 overs of play until the end of Day 2. After both teams underwhelmed with the bat in their first innings, the series winner will be decided by who wins the second innings battle.
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Different opening combinations across continents have bailed out India during the current successful phase, covering for an underperforming middle-order. But in the final hour of play on Day 2, openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal once again could not offer any resistance against the fiery opening spells of Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen. It will now be down to a middle-order rich in experience to hand their bowlers a competitive total to push for victory. Kohli (14*) and Pujara (9) helped India push the overall lead to 70 at stumps.
{{/usCountry}}Different opening combinations across continents have bailed out India during the current successful phase, covering for an underperforming middle-order. But in the final hour of play on Day 2, openers KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal once again could not offer any resistance against the fiery opening spells of Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen. It will now be down to a middle-order rich in experience to hand their bowlers a competitive total to push for victory. Kohli (14*) and Pujara (9) helped India push the overall lead to 70 at stumps.
{{/usCountry}}BUMRAH-SHAMI SHINE
It’s the pace bowlers who have led the way for India, and it was no different on Wednesday. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami ran in with hurt pride after Elgar had tired them into submission in the second Test at Johannesburg. In a 40-minute spell of play before tea, the two came together, producing three strikes to snatch the advantage away from the hosts. The fifth wicket partnership between Keegan Petersen, who scored 72 for his second successive fifty, and Temba Bavuma was promising a tall first innings lead for the hosts when the pace pair applied the brake.
Credit should also go to Kohli, for his energy and also for spotting and seizing the important moments in the match through his skilled pace quartet. He produced a moment of magic himself by clinging on to a spectacular, low catch to get Bavuma (28), helping Shami provide the breakthrough with a much-deserved wicket.
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Brought back into the attack, Shami was outstanding in the afternoon. He stuck to a fifth-stump line to go with impeccable seam position. Bavuma had been driving beautifully but Shami got him to feel for one off-stump by shortening the length a fraction. The slip fielders had been teased all day with many edges dying in front of them. But Kohli, ever alert at second slip, snapped up the catch diving to his left with fingers underneath.
Until then, Petersen, justifying his fast-growing reputation as a future batting star, was tiring the Indian bowlers with many impressive back foot punches and cuts. With Bavuma partnering him, India’s first innings 223 had begun to look insufficient. Shami’s perseverance and Kohli’s fielding brilliance offered India an opening and they prised the innings open.
Bavuma’s was Kohli’s 100th catch in Tests but this wasn’t the time for celebratory theatrics. He turned to his bench and urged them to raise the volume of their synchronised clapping from the dugout to build pressure on new man Kyle Verreynne. In the same over, Shami trapped him on the crease and forced a low edge, which was taken Rishabh Pant diving to the right. Shami’s five-over burst, and two wickets in three balls, brought India right back.
Jansen walked in and Kohli, aware of Bumrah’s wounds from being bounced in the Johannesburg Test defeat, introduced the pace ace the next over. Bumrah exacted revenge on Jansen by peppering him with short balls. Jansen’s off-stump went cartwheeling, inviting a ‘you know me now’ stare from Bumrah.
It left South Africa wobbling at 176/7 at tea. Soon after the interval, with his tail up Bumrah ended Petersen’s impressive innings and then made light of the tail to complete his seventh Test five-for. It handed India a slender, but psychologically important, 13-run lead.
With a little more luck, Shami and Bumrah could have swung the Test in India’s favour much earlier, through their probing opening spell with a seven overs old ball. Bumrah took all of two deliveries to dismiss Aiden Markram and kept zipping it in sharply to the right-handers. Shami kept shaping it away. Together, they landed 70 % of their deliveries on a good length. Shami would induce many plays and misses without much luck. Once Petersen had seen out the new-ball threat, he grew in confidence, scoring six fours in a phase of eight overs before lunch, including a reverse sweep off R Ashwin.
The fast bowling response, with Umesh Yadav too chipping in, has put the visitors in a great position.