India vs South Africa Live Score, 2nd Test Day 3: Rishabh Pant falls; India in deep trouble vs South Africa
IND vs SA 2nd Test Live Score: Indian spinners failing to turn tide on ‘good tracks’
Guwahati: If the Eden Gardens pitch was a snake-pit, this 22-yard strip is a “road”. That’s what Kuldeep Yadav, India’s most successful bowler, during the course of the two-day toil against South Africa in Barsapara, felt at the end of second day’s play here.
A tired-looking left-arm wrist spinner smiled when asked to compare the two surfaces. “Kolkata was different, yeh to pura road tha (this is absolutely a road),” Kuldeep’s words aptly summed up the disappointment that the team felt after being unable to get anything out of the pitch.
But was it entirely the pitch’s fault? If we go back in time, to the first decade of 2000s, India used to play on such pitches. And that didn’t stop them from winning Test series after another — as hosts, India didn’t lose a series till 2012.
There was a shift in 2012 after India lost to England and the then-captain MS Dhoni became adamant for dry, black-soil pitches where left-arm finger spinners bowling faster through the air would wreak havoc from day one.
It paid maximum dividends, making India an impregnable fortress for a while — with whitewashes of Australia, England and South Africa.
But things have changed over the last 12 months and India are staring at their second home series defeat. With the losses coming mostly on square turners, there has been a sudden clamour for “good pitches”.
It reached a crescendo after the Eden fiasco and the BCCI provided a traditional red-soil pitch at a venue hosting its first-ever Test match. The pitch had enough bounce and carry on the first two days and the experts are insisting that natural wear and tear will happen, which will make second-innings batting difficult. But on a track like this, to get wickets in the first innings, variations in speed, use of drift, and most importantly, the ability to turn the ball become very important.
Ravindra Jadeja, the 342-wicket man who spreads terror when the pitch starts turning from Day 1, hardly looked threatening. He kept bowling quick through the air and failed to extract turn, an aspect so crucial to break open an innings. And when he tried to bowl it slightly slower, Marco Jansen smashed him out of the park. He can still be a handful in the second innings if his batters do their job, but 2-94 isn’t exactly match-winning returns from the leader of the pack.
Washington Sundar (0-58) rarely bothered any batter as the last four wickets of South Africa plundered 243 runs. Kuldeep was the only one who tried to use his variations and drift, being rewarded too on the first day. But on Sunday, the South Africans seemed to be playing him better. He felt that they bowled well as a unit despite the runs conceded.
“I tried to use the angles and the drift as much as I could, but you’ll have to give credit to the South Africans for the way they batted,” Kuldeep said.
There was also a theory whether he was under-bowled a bit, especially when India had to be on the field for so long. He bowled 29.1 — only 12 on the second day. All-rounder Nitish Reddy bowled only six and there were questions asked about skipper Rishabh Pant’s handling of resources.
“It’s not my call to take, but when there are six bowlers, someone will be slightly under-bowled,” Kuldeep kept it at that.
