India’s Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja celebrate (ANI Photo) Guwahati: It was the 79th over of the day and the light was fading fast across the Assam Cricket Association ground at Barsapara. Captain Rishabh Pant ran towards third man, where Jasprit Bumrah was fielding, and asked whether he was game for one final burst. Bumrah, who had already bowled 16 overs in the day, nodded ‘yes’ and the new captain took the new ball soon. With the fresh red cherry under floodlights, Bumrah came back and threatened the batters but didn’t get another wicket. As South Africa looked to end the day on a high, it was Mohammed Siraj, charging in from the other end, who stole the show late. Fading light, the light meter, the ball bouncing and moving a little more — everything suddenly came into the equation when left-hander Tony de Zorzi, who was looking immensely solid till then, nicked one. There was jubilation in the India camp, and when the stumps were drawn with South Africa at 247/6 three balls later, the visitors might have felt that they had let go of the upper hand they had battled so hard for through the opening day of the second Test here.
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The game, though, is pretty much in the balance on a red-soil pitch that is significantly better to bat on than Eden Gardens in Kolkata. There was initial carry and even bounce, and the only point of concern was that the ball didn’t come on to the bat. That was one of the reasons why Temba Bavuma (41), after looking well-settled, couldn’t time his uppish drive off Ravindra Jadeja early in the third session. The ball carried to Yashasvi Jaiswal at mid-off and the South African captain’s wicket helped India get a first foot in the door. But it could have happened much earlier in the day had KL Rahul, at second slip, not put down Aiden Markram off Bumrah when the score was 13. Within the first half-hour, the ball was doing a bit and Markram’s dismissal at that stage could have allowed India to control the proceedings in the first session after they lost the toss. Markram (38) and Ryan Rickelton (35) put their heads down, grafted and came close to playing out the potentially dangerous opening two hours of the day. Bumrah (1-38), though, had the last laugh when he got the ball to move back in the last over before lunch and Markram, trying an expansive off-drive, was bowled. Right after lunch, Kuldeep Yadav got into the action with his left-arm wrist spin. His googly left Rickelton, took the edge and Pant completed the catch. At 82-2, the anticipation for a few more grew, but it was Bavuma and Tristan Stubbs (49) who dug in. With no serious demons in the pitch, the duo put their heads down and battled for the runs, taking toll of the rare loose ball. While the Indian spinners, led by Kuldeep (3-48), kept it tight, Bavuma and Stubbs didn’t try to be adventurous either. In this age of frantic three-day matches, it felt like a good old day of Test cricket — a rarity these days in India, or perhaps all around the world as well. The spinners tried to out-think the batters while the South Africans showed patience, batting at a run rate of less than three in the session. The crowd, getting their first taste of Test cricket at home, did get impatient once in a while. But they were ready to wait for the Indian bowlers to provide them with some joy on a hot Saturday afternoon. Which they got once the final session started. After Jadeja dismissed Bavuma, Kuldeep got his drift going beautifully. He induced an edge off Stubbs (49) looking for a half-century and started looking seriously threatening. He got his pace right, rarely got the length wrong and was rewarded with Wiaan Mulder’s wicket, who failed to clear the inner ring looking for a shot in the air. And once de Zorzi was dismissed late on, there was some relief in the India camp. But no one seemed certain what a good score was. Later, while Stubbs seemed disappointed that no one carried on with the starts they got and that the Proteas are slightly short at the moment, Team India fielding coach Ryan ten Doeschate felt that the pitch can get difficult to bat on in the second innings. “I feel the wicket rarely determines who wins the game. If we’d played better in Kolkata, we could have won on that surface… So the first thing isn’t to look at the wicket, it’s to look at the quality of cricket we are playing,” the fielding coach said.
