The first four hours and 41 minutes of Day Four at the ACA Stadium were a slow burn, South Africa assiduously if not carefully building on their numerical advantage. The meandering Tuesday sprang to life in the final 72 minutes as India, set an impossible 549 for a series-levelling victory, played themselves into a giant hole from which escape to safety is a prospect fraught with uncertainty.
Planned late declaration
South Africa knew what they were doing. They had their plans in place, among which was an assault on India’s batters through their pacers with a new ball late in the day, when the shadows lengthened and the ball for some reason does more in the loaming. That’s why they delayed their declaration, eventually pulling the plug at the fall of Tristan Stubbs for 94, with their total on 260 for five.
South Africa’s Tristan Stubbs during his 94 against India in Guwahati on Tuesday. Pic/AFP
By the time Temba Bavuma applied the closure, the series had been won and lost. The sole matter of interest was whether India would show the bottle to avoid a second home whitewash in three series. Having lost Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul in the 15.5 overs to stumps, India have left themselves with a mountain to climb on the last day of a series where nothing has gone right for them.
Jaiswal came into the second innings with a polished half-century two days previously, but an old failing, the cut shot, proved his undoing for the fourth time in his last eight Test innings when he perished to first-innings hero Marco Jansen, managing a feather through to wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne with his weight going backwards as he essayed the stroke.
Where Jaiswal had shown some intent, Rahul appeared intent only on survival. Out of nowhere, he half-attempted to work offie Simon Harmer’s second ball to leg, the closed bat face allowing the beautifully flighted delivery to break through the gate and hit off-peg. Rahul’s propensity to bat time is well established, so his dismissal was a big blow to India’s hopes of salvaging a modicum of respectability.
India will begin Wednesday on 27 for two, needing to bat out somewhere in the region of 85 overs to minimise the damage. The odds are firmly stacked in South Africa’s favour, on the evidence of the gung-ho attitude India’s batters have brought with them all series long.
South Africa could have embraced that approach when they began the day on 26 without loss, already 314 to the good, but they knuckled down to accomplish team goals with aplomb.
Jadeja, the biggest threat
Ravindra Jadeja again loomed as the biggest threat and held up his end of the bargain, but apart from Bavuma, all other batters got off to starts.
It was left to Tony de Zorzi and Wiaan Mulder to provide the impetus alongside Stubbs, who overcame long bouts of ennui with a series of reverse and conventional sweeps after bringing up his half-century. With a third Test hundred one hit away, the 25-year-old right-hander was bowled by Jadeja attempting one sweep too many, the cue for Bavuma to unleash his bowlers on India’s hesitant, low-on-confidence batters.
1
No. of times any team has scored more than 400 runs on Day Five of a Test match
2
No. of times India have been set a target in excess of 500 in a home Test
Brief scores
South Africa 489 & 260-5d (T Stubbs 94, T de Zorzi 49, R Rickelton 35, W Mulder 35*; R Jadeja 4-62) vs India 201 & 27-2 (Y Jaiswal 13; S Harmer 1-1, M Jansen 1-14)