India snap South Africa’s unbeaten streak

Rohit Mahajan

Tribune News Service

Nagpur, November 27

The inevitable occurred 22 minutes past three this afternoon – India scored their fifth consecutive three-day Test win at a home venue, sealing this series 2-0, with one match to go. Chasing 310 for a win, South Africa fought it out for 75.5 overs today before capitulating. Ravichandran Ashwin took 7/66 and South Africa fell to 185, losing by 124 runs.

At the start of play today, South Africa needed 278 more, eight wickets in hand. Their batsmen tried to blend aggression with prudence; but mere survival was torturous and there was no possibility of free-flowing strokeplay. Ashwin stuck to the task without attempting too many variations; but his repertoire of drift and flight, accompanied by change in pace and degree of spin, was challenging enough.

AB de Villiers lasted 21 balls, but it wasn’t pretty. He tried to use his feet to reach the ball, in an attempt to smother the unplayable ball he was sure he’d get. Ashwin got him with a carom ball that deceived him completely. It was 58/4 now, and the end seemed nigh. There was a twist, though, as Faf du Plessis and Hashim Amla kept the bowlers at bay for 46.2 overs, scoring 72 runs in them. The two had moments of good fortune when the catches either dropped short or went wide of fielders. The resistance was ended by Amit Mishra, who beat Amla with a leg-spinner that drifted towards leg before pitching and spinning across the bat, taking the edge. Mishra got du Plessis too, off one that kept low. JP Duminy and Dane Vilas then defied India for nearly 10 overs; for the first time in the series, one of the two teams played over 80 overs. The second new ball, thus, became available for the first time in the series. The hard ball zipped and bounced more, and Ashwin ended the innings quickly enough.

5th three-day Test

The 89.5 overs South Africa lasted in their second knock of the match made it the longest innings of the series so far, but this only delayed the inevitable to the third session of the third day. South Africa were humbled and left with the bitter aftertaste of defeat, which was mixed with a sense of injustice over the nature of the wicket. So, 40 wickets fell in less than three days in this game; 33 of these wickets were taken by the spinners. All 20 of the South African wickets were taken by the spinners – Ashwin took 12 of those 20, while Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja shared the remaining eight.

Yet it wasn’t Ashwin who was the most talked-about factor in India’s win – it was the pitch, which has been called “diabolical” by some.

The focus on the wicket is extremely unfair to Ashwin, because he bowled beautifully in this game, especially when the South African batsmen were more prepared to use their defensive skills.

The pitch story

The narrative on the pitch is sharply driven on nationalistic lines – the South Africans believe that this pitch was not right for Test cricket because of the variable and unpredictable bounce and turn caused by it right from Day 1.

The Indians insist that the South Africans lost because their skills against the spinning ball are inadequate. They, in fact, say that India’s own batsmen didn’t play with the requisite skill and application in their four completed innings of the series. In their four completed innings, the Indian batsmen average merely 19.72 runs per innings – the Indian camp insists that this has been caused by the lack of application shown by them.

These narratives are diametrically opposite, and we need to look for unbiased opinion. Unbiased opinion, emanating from countries other than India and South Africa, insists that this pitch was indeed not right for Test cricket; top-class batsmen shouldn’t be made to look clueless on Test wickets. Batsmen from both the sides, some of them wonderful strokeplayers, have struggled to time the ball right from Day 1.

After the win, India captain Virat Kohli was asked if he and the other India batsmen didn’t mind appearing to be visually “ugly” due to the difficult nature of the wicket. “I don’t think our displays have been ugly... It’s a harsh word to use,” he said. “It’s been lack of application. And I don’t mind compromising on (batsmen’s) averages as long as we are winning Test matches.”

This seems to confirm that the purpose of this wicket was victory for India

Scoreboard

India: 215, 173 | SA: 79

SA 2nd innings (target: 310)

Elgar lbw Ashwin 18

S van Zyl c R Sharma b Ashwin 5

I Tahir lbw b Mishra 8

H Amla c Kohli b Mishra 39

AB de Villiers lbw Ashwin 9

Faf du Plessis b Mishra 39

JP Duminy lbw Ashwin 19

D Vilas c Saha b Ashwin 12

S Harmer not out 8

K Rabada c Kohli b Ashwin 6

M Morkel b Ashwin 4

Extras (b-9, lb-5, nb-4) 16

Total (all out; 89.5 overs) 185

FOW: 1-17, 2-29, 3-40, 4-58, 5-130, 6-135, 7-164, 8-167, 9-177, 10-185

Bowling

Ishant Sharma 15-6-20-0

R Ashwin 29.5-66-7

R Jadeja 25-12-34-0

A Mishra 20-2-51-3