South Africa anticipated a pitch of this nature and came well prepared. India asked for a surface like this and got precisely what they wanted, yet they found themselves short of the skills and the discipline needed to counter its tricks in the first Test, which ended with seven sessions to spare on Sunday afternoon.
The Eden Gardens track made for a gripping, pulsating Test match with fortunes swinging wildly until the pendulum rested on South Africa’s side. The reigning World Test champions surged him by 30 runs as they expertly defended a fourth-innings target of 125, consigning India to their fourth home loss in their
six matches in the Gautam Gambhir era.
The head coach conceded later that the Indian think-tank had wanted a surface where the ball turned from the first day so that the (dis)advantage of the toss could be neutralised. But this surface had not just turn, but also extreme and unpredictable bounce which made horizontal-bat strokes very difficult to employ. Almost everyone was consistent in their assessment that a ball with one’s name on it seemed imminent though at various stages, KL Rahul, Washington Sundar and Temba Bavuma, the excellent South Africa skipper, more than held their own with the bat.
Up-and-down strip
If it was ripping turn alone, the batters would still have had a chance but with the ball either skidding along or popping up dramatically on landing at the same spot, it was impossible to trust either the character of the pitch or one’s skills and technical proficiency. The up-and-down nature of the strip ruled out rotation of strike when the ball was delivered within the line of the stumps, and as every dot ball added to the growing pressure, a couple of the batters holed out looking for get-out-of-jail strokes.
Eden’s first Test in six years will, unfortunately, be remembered for all the wrong reasons. Play lasted only eight sessions with the dice loaded so heavily in favour of the batters that Bavuma was the lone half-centurion as he extended his remarkable record as batter-captain. The 35-year-old averages nearly 15 runs more per innings in Tests when he leads the team than his career average (38.42) and has now overseen 10 victories in 11 games in charge. He showed that the demons in the pitch could be conquered, that the deck was anything but unplayable, but this was far from an ideal surface for a Test match and an open invitation from India for South Africa to step in and deliver the knockout punch.
Wake-up call
India have lost their last four home Tests to teams from the SENA countries, following their 0-3 hammering by New Zealand last year. Having defeated England 4-1 at the start of 2024 on good decks that brought the best out of their batters and their excellent bowlers, they have since chosen to invest in terrible turners that have exposed technical and attitudinal deficiencies. Eden Gardens ought therefore to be a wake-up call. Whether it will be, is another matter altogether.