Down and out

Centurion, January 18

First, the good news: India have managed to bowl out South Africa four times in four innings, taking 40 wickets in the two Tests. In contrast, on the previous tour of that country in 2013-14, India had taken all South African wickets only twice in four innings. In the two-Test series then, India had picked up a total of 27 wickets. 

The bad news: Despite this good show by the bowlers, India have lost the series, are 0-2 down, and there is a good chance that they would be whitewashed 3-0. What went so terribly wrong? Read on...

Pujara factor

Cheteshwar Pujara was twice run-out in the Centurion Test — a horrible waste that dealt a mortal blow to India. In the Cape Town Test, he played a bad shot in the first innings and got an unplayable ball in the second. The result: Pujara’s average is 10th best among the Indian batsmen. He’s made 49 runs in four innings. Above him on the averages table are the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, R Ashwin, Parthiv Patel and Mohammed Shami. 

On the last tour, Pujara was India’s rock, scoring 280 runs in four innings with one 100 and one 50. India’s premier batsman getting run-out two times is unpardonable.

On run-outs, Hardik Pandya too was run-out in the second innings at Centurion.

Where’s Rahane?

This brings us to Ajinkya Rahane, who’d made 209 runs in four innings in 2013-14, his average of 69.66 second-best after Pujara. This time around, Rahane hasn’t figured in the first two Tests. He’s going through a crisis in confidence, having failed miserably against Sri Lanka at home recently, scoring 4, 0, 2, 1, 10 in five innings. After that, there was no way he was going to play in South Africa. 

Trouble at top

Murali Vijay is another huge disappointment. He is called the best “leaver” of the ball in the Indian team. In this series, he’s been anything but that — he’s played bad shots outside the off-stump, and once got a very good ball. He’s averaging 17.25 in this series — the last time around, he made 148 runs in four innings and averaged 37. With Shikhar Dhawan contributing 32 runs in two innings in Cape Town and KL Rahul 14 in two innings in Centurion, India’s opening pair has been very shaky — the opening partnerships in four innings have been 16, 30, 28 and 11.

SA lower order

We need to give credit to South Africa for the fight they put up after losing wickets in both Tests. In Cape Town, they were down to 12/3 and 142/5 in the first innings, yet managed to reach 286. Batsmen No. 6 to 11 contributed 43, 23, 35, 26, 16 and 2 runs. These runs were critical in a low-scoring match. In the second innings at Centurion, South Africa were 163/5, but the tail played around Faf du Plessis (48) to take the team to 258, setting India a near-impossible target of 287.

Spurned chances

This brings us to the chances India gave the South African batsmen. India’s catching has been poor. At Centurion, Parthiv Patel dropped Hashim Amla off Ashwin; in the second innings, he didn’t even go for a catch off Dean Elgar off Jasprit Bumrah’s bowling.

Late in the first innings, Virat Kohli was caught napping when he dropped Kagiso Rabada off Ashwin; the next ball, Rabada offered another chance, but this time Hardik Pandya dropped it as Mohammed Shami also went for it and they nearly collided.

Pandya himself had dropped Amla on 11, and the batsman went on to make 82; Patel too dropped Amla off Ishant. There are always ifs and buts, though it can be argued that South Africa’s first innings would have folded below 250 if India had taken all their chances. Instead, South Africa went on to score 335. 

Senseless batting, senseless running, and dropped catches — no wonder India are down and out of this series. — Agencies, TNS