An hour into the post-Lunch session, the Saturday crowd grew restless, soon giving way to despair.
There was very little to rejoice for the 41,000-odd who had thronged the Eden to revel at India’s batting exploits. Much to their chagrin, the home batters floundered against a Simon Harmer, who hadn’t achieved much success on his first tour of India in 2015.
The frustration showed as chants of “S-aa-c-h-i-n, S-aa-c-h-i-n” soon rent the air on the Club House upper tier. From 153/4, India slid to 189 all out with Harmer and Keshav Maharaj taking five of the nine wickets to fall.
The established template of India’s dominance on turning wickets has come under threat since New Zealand’s 3-0 whitewash last year. The batters’ vulnerability against spin again lay exposed, the BCCI’s best efforts to plug the loopholes notwithstanding.
South Africa are ahead by 63 runs at close on Day II after conceding a 30-run lead with only three wickets remaining.
Even an India victory will not be enough to cover their shortcomings. That they are adept at playing spin at home is an established myth. What was once spoken in whispers is now a harsh reality. There is a view that since most batters play T20 cricket, it has affected their ability to play spin. They go at the ball with harder hands, resulting in more edges.
The BCCI had made it mandatory for players to participate in domestic cricket to acclimatise to the conditions. Sitanshu Kotak was hurriedly attached to the team as batting coach immediately after the New Zealand debacle. Nothing seems to have worked though.
Most batters on Saturday tried to hit their way out of their miseries, but that was hardly the ideal approach in conditions where the ball was turning almost square.
The home team’s innings was in many ways similar to South Africa’s — both had a highest partnership of 57, only one batter from each team crossed 30 and three batters on both sides scored between 20 and 29.
-Bowling coach Morne Morkel, however, said later that the batters’ failure was “definitely not alarming”.
