Mohali unfolding at Nagpur

Rohit Mahajan

Tribune News Service

Nagpur, November 25

India, having been skittled out for 215, reduced South Africa to 11/2 at close of play on the first day of the third Test.

Fending for themselves nervously, on a pitch that’s turning sharply, the South Africans are going through a nightmare — and they’d have a sense of déjà vu about it. Something similar happened to them on the first day of the first Test in Mohali. There they’d bowled India out for 201, but then were down to 28/2 at stumps. The match ended in three days. This game too should end well before the fifth day, and it would require a miracle for South Africa to emerge as the winners.

Terror by spin

After India won the toss, some remarkable scenes were witnessed in the first session. Within the first 10 overs, South Africa had used two spinners; within the first hour, South Africa had used three spinners. And in the second hour, a man with a broom had to come to the middle to sweep away the loose dust near the popping crease. Soon the pitch that had been used for less than 25 overs began to look several days old, and the marks of the bowlers’ feet on the follow-through area became extremely conspicuous. Right in the first over bowled by their off-spinner, Simon Harmer, the ball spun hard off the track, raising puffs of dust from the wicket — and it was only the ninth over of the innings. The 10th over was bowled by part-time left-arm spinner Dean Elgar, and he immediately beat the outside edge of Murali Vijay’s bat.

These early signals were ominous, a sign of things to come. India did get to 50 before suffering a loss, Shikhar Dhawan caught by Elgar off his own bowling. Then Morne Morkel, leading the attack in the absence of Dale Steyn, got going, swinging and reverse-swinging the ball. Harmer too found his bearings and began to trouble the batsmen; wickets began to tumble and a total of even 150 seemed difficult to reach.

The ball was turning more sharply than it did in Mohali, and the South African bowlers perhaps couldn’t figure out what methods they should employ. Morkel and Kagiso Rabada had not pitched the ball up to the batsmen early on; their short deliveries allowed the batsmen to score runs easily because the wicket was slow and the bouncers and short deliveries harmless.

Before the match, Virat Kohli had talked about being decisive in using the feet against the spinners — Dhawan did that but could only swat the ball to the right of Elgar, who dived to catch it.

Morkel started his second spell in the 20th over, and this time he pitched the ball up, even trying a yorker to Cheteshwar Pujara. The odd ball was keeping low and Morkel was keen to go for LBW decisions . He got Vijay out LBW in the second over of this spell, with one that was full and swung a bit to beat the outside edge of Vijay’s bat.

Pujara and Kohli got India to 69 before Harmer got Pujara when the batsman made the fatal error of playing on the backfoot. Ajinkya Rahane lazily played across the line to Morkel and lost his off-stump. Kohli edged a Morkel away-swinger to the wicketkeeper. Rohit Sharma, brought in for Stuart Binny, lasted 28 balls but made merely two, edging Harmer to his own pad, and the ball lobbed up for AB de Villiers to grab the catch.

At 125/6, India had dug themselves into a hole. Ravindra Jadeja and Wriddhiman Saha added 48 important runs in a jittery partnership, Saha looking particularly vulnerable, beaten umpteen times playing and missing outside off. Jadeja knew the situation well, and he knew it would be important to mop up as many runs as possible. So he attacked and got the runs whenever he could.

A total of 215 seemed imposing on this track, and South Africa were suitably awed, and lost Stiaan van Zyl to Ashwin and nightwatchman Imran Tahir to Jadeja.

Twelve wickets fell in the day. Tomorrow promises to be the same, if not worse.

Scoreboard

India

M Vijay lbw b Morkel 40

S Dhawan c & b Elgar 12

C Pujara lbw b Harmer 21

V Kohli c Vilas b Morkel 22

A Rahane b Morkel 13

R Sharma c de Villiers b Harmer 2

W Saha  c Duminy b Harmer 32

R Jadeja b Rabada 34

R Ashwin b Tahir 15

A Mishra lbw b Tahir 3

I Sharma  not out 0

Extras (lb-3, b-15, wd-2, nb-1) 21

Total (all out in 78.2 overs) 215

Fall of wickets: 1-50, 2-69, 3-94, 4-115, 5-116, 6-125, 7-173, 8-201, 9-215 

Bowling

M Morkel 16.1-7-35-3

K Rabada 17-8-30-1

S Harmer 27.2-2-78-4

D Elgar 4-0-7-1

I Tahir 12.5-1-41-1

JP Duminy 1-0-6-0

South Africa 

D Elgar not out 7

Stiaan van Zyl c Rahane b Ashwin 0

I Tahir b Jadeja 4

H Amla not out 0

Total (For two wkts; 9 overs) 11

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-9 

Bowling

I Sharma 2-1-4-0

R Ashwin 4-2-5-1

R Jadeja 3-1-2-1