1st Test
Day 1
South Africa 286
India 28/3 (11 ov)
India trail by 258 runs with 7 wickets remaining in the 1st innings
Drama, thy name is Test cricket. At Newlands. On a pitch with a bit of spice. With a build-up that did not lack for shots across the bow.
Faf du Plessis confessed he had a score to settle, and so he armed himself with four fast bowlers the envy of the world. Virat Kohli saw Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel and Vernon Philander during warm-ups. His only comment with regard to that was "we knew they were going a batsman short and we want to get at them with the new ball".
But really, how could anyone avoid the temptation of unleashing that attack, in any condition let alone a surface with both pace and lateral movement. Given 11 overs to turn the game, Philander dismissed M Vijay, Steyn claimed Dhawan to move into the top-10 wicket-takers in Test history and Morkel lured Kohli into a familar trap behind the wicket. India bowled South Africa out for 286 but then they limped to stumps at 28 for 3.
Cape Town dealt almost exclusively in hair-raising action. Bhuvneshwar Kumar began proceedings by spiriting three wickets in his first three overs. To ensure there wasn't one-way traffic, AB de Villiers produced a half-century that was downright delectable. He had total control of the game and the opposition at his mercy when the debutant Jasprit Bumrah - who played his last first-class game almost a year ago - knocked back the off stump.
India's hold-one-end-up bowler Hardik Pandya got rid of du Plessis for 62 mere moments after a remarkably tight lbw call went against the visitors. Kohli probably had that running in his head - and the South African captain's pre-series comments about revenge - when he indulged in a send-off and was soon cautioned by the umpires.
Worried that things had calmed too far down, Quinton de Kock played like he was the action hero who always gets shot at but never gets hit.
Now, it is more than fair for a home team to play to its strengths but that didn't mean batting was a treacherous exercise. The outfield was lightning. The ball came on even better than expected. Fields were up. And fun was had. The run-rate through the first two sessions was 4.3
Dean Elgar might not be too happy with how his day went though. Having finished 2017 as South Africa's highest Test scorer, his first innings in the new year lasted only three deliveries. It wasn't entirely his fault though. India had probably done their homework and realised that of his 44 dismissals to pace, 30 of them have been caught behind or in the cordon. So Bhuvneshwar forced him to deal with a back-of-a-length ball pitching on off stump and seaming away. He had to play. Then he had to go.
Aiden Markram was lbw not playing a shot. Okay, that's not quite true. He was trying desperately to bring his bat in line with a good length delivery pitching outside off and jagging back in but he just wasn't quick enough. The young opener basically strung himself up with his habit of shuffling across and playing around his front pad.
The third wicket of this phenomenal spell was probably the most important of them all. But it was the least sexy. Hashim Amla poked well away from his body and Wriddhiman Saha picked up his second catch of the first half hour, much to the cacophonous delight of the slip fielders beside him. Oddly, Ajinkya Rahane was not among that number with India choosing to go in with Rohit Sharma, a man in better recent form, and Hardik Pandya.
With the new ball and the outside and inside edges hogging the limelight, the middle of the bat was off sulking somewhere. De Villiers found it and made sure it was front and centre for the entire time he was at the crease. He sent his first delivery through midwicket for a crisp boundary. He struck India's best bowler of the day for four fours in an over. He played late. He met the ball close to his body. He used soft hands. And he punished anything even remotely short. In essence, de Villiers' innings was an exhibition of how to bat on a difficult pitch. Playing only his third day of Test cricket over the last two years, he made 65 off 84 balls.
Du Plessis was, as ever, scoring runs by simply making sure he was at the wicket. He waited for the wide ones to hit through cover and point. He feasted on the straight ones, that strong bottom hand coupling very nicely with a fast outfield. But the cut shot to get to a half-century in his comeback Test - he missed Boxing Day with a viral infection - was basically a dare. Try stopping that.
India might have done even better if Mohammed Shami had found his rhythm sooner but he probably did not enjoy bowling into the wind; his run-up noticeably affected. It took 10 overs and three spells for his first wicket of the tour. It was one his team was hunting for though. Philander, in his pre-match comments, had indicated that he did not believe India were better travellers now. And while he did play some of the best cover drives in the match, helping string a vital 60-run stand for the sixth wicket at more than run-a-ball with de Kock, he left the field with his defences and his stumps shattered.
Bhuvneshwar had the opportunity to take a fifth wicket just before tea was taken, but India's old problem of having a porous slip cordon put paid to those plans when Dhawan dropped Keshav Maharaj on 0. The batsman had made 35 in enterprising fashion before he was dismissed, run-out by a direct hit from R Ashwin at mid-on. Later, the offspinner picked up his first wicket in South Africa, Rabada caught behind. The innings ended in the 74th over when Morkel was lbw to the same bowler for 2. The hosts' last five wickets added 144 runs - that's two more than the first five.
Day 2
South Africa 286 & 65/2 (20 ov)
India 209
South Africa lead by 142 runs with 8 wickets remaining
In their first innings of a season in which they'll be living out of their briefcases, India realised they forgot to pack something rather important. The middle of the bat. They were 92 for 7 and the Newlands Test began to look like another one in a long line of dismal performances away from home.
Two months ago, when Hardik Pandya was rested from the Test team, he spoke about playing in South Africa in this way. "I might be the difference, let's see." Living up to his own lofty billing, the 24-year old allrounder defied a fearsome fast-bowling attack to make 93 off 95 balls. South Africa did eventually secure a lead of 77 runs, bowling India out for 209, but it might have come at a sizeable cost. With three overs to tea, Dale Steyn injured his left heel and there are concerns that he may he out of the series.
Cape Town, as it did on the first day, continued spoiling cricket fans rotten. Vernon Philander began the day with five successive maidens. Kagiso Rabada was just plain mean. Morne Morkel seemed to be pushing through his action better; the snap of his wrist had been more palpable and those awkwardly rising deliveries came with greater frequency. Steyn, while fit, calmly moved to 418 Test wickets, three away from the national record.
Can you spot a weak link in there? Given helpful conditions, each of them can be a spearhead. They also pose different questions to a batsman, are incredibly accurate, and hate giving away runs. All of that meant India had not a moment of respite. They made only 29 in the first 18 overs - the point when they lost their first wicket of the day. Back then, the plan was to survive. Invest time in the middle as the surface flattens out and hope to have wickets in hand when the bowlers start to tire.
And they did. They also got frustrated because Pandya wasn't trussing himself up and presenting his wicket to them. As audacious as the shots he played were - upper cuts to a 145 kph bouncer, a flat-batted biff over extra cover to get to his fifty and a still-headed down-the-track flick through midwicket - he was also thoughtful. Once, when he was beaten while playing a cut shot - he's very good at that - he queried his partner Bhuvneshwar Kumar whether his execution was off or if the ball had kept low. The exchange of information continued all the way through their 99-run stand for the eighth wicket.
Pandya made runs all around the dial. Crucially, he threw South Africa off their plans. They began bowling around the wicket, targeting his body. That left lbw in the bin. He walked at Philander first ball, giving a bowler who relies exceedingly on lateral movement something more to think about than the outside edge. That his strokeplay is eye-catching is no surprise. But his ease in countering a quality bowling line-up in Test cricket certainly was. India may have finally found a bankable seam-bowling allrounder, the discovery taking place while their greatest ever was celebrating his 59th birthday.
South Africa could, of course, have saved themselves some irritation if Dean Elgar had held on to a sharp catch at gully when Pandya was only 15. Prior to that, he overturned Richard Kettleborough's verdict of caught behind with the help of a review. Steyn was the aggrieved bowler on both occasions, and his day only got worse when he hobbled off the field.
The loss of a bowling leader often derails campaigns. But as in Perth 2016, Rabada stepped up. His third ball of the day was clocked at 146 kph. It beat the splice of the bat on its way to the wicketkeeper. In light of that, there may be sense in playing him off the back foot. But, he is just as adept as pitching the ball up, and has sensational speed through the air. Rohit Sharma found that out the hard way when he was late to bring the bat down and was out lbw.
Rabada's next wicket was Pandya - right after he nailed the batsman in the gut - and he was rewarded with a kiss on the forehead from captain Faf du Plessis. The 22-year old is every bit in the mold of his mentor. He was disgruntled that he was used for only seven overs early on. He indulged in angry screams after taking a wicket. He made batsmen hop. He greeted the opposition's premier spinner with a short ball aimed at the heart. Best of all, when Chesteshwar Pujara played a rare drive through the covers and trotted across for a single, he told the batsman "you hit that so hard, and it didn't even go off the square." It had all the hallmarks of a Steyn sledge - the man did memorably respond to Rohit's call of "come to India, let's see what happens" with "I have more runs than you do this series" in 2013-14.
Pandya's day was not quite done yet. He came on second-change for India and dismissed both of South Africa's openers but their lead is already at 142 and the Test remains in their control.
Day 3 (washout)
South Africa 286 & 65/2 (20 ov)
India 209
South Africa lead by 142 runs with 8 wickets remaining
The entire third day of the Newlands Test was lost to rain, although there might not have been too many people complaining as a result considering Cape Town is in the middle of a severe drought. The showers began on Saturday night and returned in full force in the morning. There were a brief few moments after lunch when it seemed like play could have been possible, but even as the groundsmen were preparing to peel the covers off, the weather turned.
Days four and five will now feature 98 overs each, but play will begin at the usual time of 1030 local. At present, South Africa are 65 for 2 - leading India by 142 runs - with Hashim Amla on 4 and nightwatchman Kagiso Rabada on 2 at the crease.
Day 4
South Africa 286 & 130
India 209 & 135 (42.4 ov, target: 208)
South Africa won by 72 runs
For a half hour or so, the South African pace attack looked... unremarkable. Without Dale Steyn - out of the series with a heel injury - the other three had a difficult task summoning their usual menace. Then came an inswinger. It only decided to be one after travelling three-fourth the distance down the pitch. It fooled Virat Kohli. And it broke India.
Newlands was once again a reminder that Test-match conditions tilted in favour of the bowlers foster compelling cricket. In fact, footage of the fast bowling from both teams can probably replace adrenaline in hospitals. The fourth day alone featured 18 wickets and six of them went to Vernon Philander as his career-best sealed victory for his team, on his home ground, by 72 runs.
In the end, the result highlighted the difference between the two sides and was borne from the fact that South Africa's bowlers allowed 48 boundaries in the entire Test and India's offered 41 in the first innings alone.
Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah did try their best to make amends. Like a heavy metal song that begins in the guise of a gentle melody, they simply blew batsmen away in the morning.
Faf du Plessis was the worst affected. He did not do much wrong in deciding to press forward to a delivery that under normal circumstances would have come up about waist-high. But in Cape Town, on a surface that spent an entire day under the covers, something crazy happened. The ball banged into the deck, it trampolined up to take the top glove even as the batsman recoiled from the line of fire, and settled in the wicketkeeper's waiting gloves.
As elated as India would have been at that point, they would have known their batsmen would have to tackle those kinds of deliveries at a much higher frequency. They did start rather well, cruising to 28 for 0 in seven overs and in that time, M Vijay had already bested two jaffas, ruled out on both of them, but using DRS to continue his innings. Philander made sure the opener wasn't third time lucky.
Given the new ball from the other end, Morne Morkel bounced out Shikhar Dhawan and then had Cheteshwar Pujara caught behind with a snorter that the batsman had no choice but to play. India were in the mire and in walked their captain.
Kohli's stay at the crease was purposeful. He half seemed in one-day mode, turning dots into ones and ones into twos. He knew India wouldn't get too many opportunities to score and so he tried to give himself a leg up - literally. In the hour that he was out there, he made a conscious effort to thrust his front foot down the pitch and in his eagerness to do so, it often slid too far across on off stump. One of his leg glances was played right around his pad. South Africa sensed an opportunity.Philander converted it brilliantly.
The game changed from that moment on. Kagiso Rabada came charging in next over and roughed up Rohit Sharma with a ferocious bouncer. The batsman was beaten for pace and would have been out if not for a bit of casual fielding at long leg by Keshav Maharaj - he did not have his shades on and the sun blinded him from even putting a hand on the catch. If India read anything into that moment of fortune, Philander got rid of Rohit five balls later, a loose push away from the body forced an inside edge to crash into his stumps.
Hardik Pandya was caught at gully - the same position he was dropped at in the first innings - for 1 with AB de Villiers securing a fine catch and indulging in a loud send-off. In the pre-match presser, South Africa made no pretense that they have a score to settle with India. Come the time to back it up, they were absolutely relentless.
A man playing his second Test since January 2016 found a way to perform at his peak. De Villiers batted at a level beyond the rest to take the lead above 200. There was a flick through midwicket for four that bowlers might petition to be taken out of the game. Then, a man who was meant to be in a moon boot walked out to bat. Steyn may not be able to play the sport he loves for four weeks, but when his team was nine down and needed him, he shrugged off the pain and put on the pads. South Africa are highly invested in winning this series and they've made a near-perfect start to it.
2nd Test
South Africa 269/6
India
SA Won toss & will bat
After all the talk of the pace and bounce of the Highveld, Centurion ended up providing India the most subcontinental conditions they could have expected on this tour. The skies were blue, the pitch was brown, and R Ashwin bowled the bulk of India's overs.
That could have been the extent of India feeling at home. For the first 80.4 overs of the day, South Africa's batsmen had pitched tents on this flat, friendly surface and pinned family photographs onto the canvas. Aiden Markram had fallen narrowly short of a hundred, but Hashim Amla looked all set to stroll past that milestone, and South Africa were 246 for 3.
And then, Centurion 2018 turned into Kolkata 2010. Amla and Alviro Petersen had scored centuries that day, only for South Africa to collapse from 218 for 1 to 296 all out, in a typically Eden Gardens post-tea collapse.
Here, South Africa lost three wickets for the addition of five runs, two of them to run-outs, and India, out of nowhere, were back in the game. They hardly deserved to be: Ashwin and Ishant Sharma apart, their frontline bowlers had been poor.
Deserve, however, has nothing to do with Test cricket; a few overs is all it takes, sometimes, for a match to swing 180 degrees.
It began, as it often can, with a moment of brilliance on the field. Amla got on his toes, rode the bounce of a short ball from Hardik Pandya, and tucked it gently into the on side. Faf du Plessis called for one, and Amla, after a moment's hesitation, responded. That moment was enough; Pandya sprinted across in his follow-through, swooped on the ball, spun around, and fired a direct hit at the bowler's end. Amla was gone, for 82.
In walked Quinton de Kock, a left-hander. Ashwin, from round the wicket, greeted him with a quick-turning offbreak in the channel outside off stump. New to the crease, de Kock pushed at it without really moving his feet and edged to slip.
All the swirling excitement and anxiety of the moment got to Vernon Philander, who ten minutes earlier would not have expected to put on his pads. A bunt into the leg side, and a mad dash to the other end despite his captain yelling at him to stay put cost him his wicket. South Africa were 251 for 6 and India flooded the stump mic with yelps of delight.
For most of the first eight-ninths of this day, India's voices had been muted. The first four South African wickets had added 85, 63, 51 and 47, indicative of an attack that seldom applied pressure from both ends, and a top order that batted with a great degree of comfort.
Playing only his seventh Test innings, Markram passed 50 for the fourth time, and looked a natural fit at this level. Taking guard on off stump, he stood tall and stood still at the crease, making no trigger movement and as a result remaining perfectly balanced. Time and again India's seamers slipped in the full, straight lbw ball in vain; Markram's head refused to fall across to the off side, and he punched and drove handsomely through the V, the area wide of mid-on proving particularly productive.
When the quicks dropped short, he punished them with punches and slaps through the covers and, on one occasion, a dismissive pull. The Saturday crowd at Centurion got to see all these shots frequently, since the fast bowlers, Ishant apart, kept feeding him boundary balls.
Jasprit Bumrah showed control with the new ball, but sprayed it around in all his subsequent spells, while Mohammed Shami, much like day one in Cape Town, was wayward and below top-pace with the new ball. Just when he seemed to be finding some rhythm and reverse-swing around an hour after lunch, Shami went off the field, looking a little under the weather. India's team management later clarified it was a "mild headache".
Bounce apart, there wasn't a whole lot of help for the seam bowlers, and perhaps this was why India went in with Ishant ahead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who had picked up 4 for 87 and 2 for 33 in Cape Town. Ishant responded impressively, coming on as first change and testing Dean Elgar's footwork and judgment with his angle, a bit of seam movement, and a fullish length that drew the left-hander forward.
Having fought his way through this spell, Elgar survived a testing period against Ashwin just before lunch, getting beaten twice in 10 balls, with India unsuccessfully reviewing for caught-behind on one occasion. Soon after lunch, Elgar stepped out and drove Ashwin back over his head - perhaps the shot of an anxious batsman looking to hit his tormentor off his length - but the next time he tried stepping out, he didn't reach the pitch of the ball and ended up stabbing a catch to silly point.
This was India's best period of play all day, with Ashwin finding dip and bounce at one end and Ishant bowling tightly at the other. These two couldn't keep bowling forever, however, and South Africa soon returned to free-scoring ways, with Amla turning the clock back with the wristwork on his flicks and back-foot punches. It took a change of angle for India to effect their next breakthrough, Markram edging Ashwin behind when he went around the wicket. The ball, angled across Markram, didn't spin back as much as he expected, but it was the length that did him, pinning him awkwardly to the crease - rather than going neither forward nor back, he was trying to do both at the same time - and making him jab away from his body.
AB de Villiers was busy right from the time he came in, unveiling the reverse-sweep to pick up a boundary off Ashwin when he was still in single figures, but there was a touch of looseness to his game as well. A jab away from his body at Bumrah resulted in an inside-edge that nearly trickled onto his stumps, and when he tried the same shot against Ishant after tea, he chopped on for 20. The ball had begun to keep low every now and then and this was a shot he could have avoided.
At that point, though, South Africa were still in too dominant a position to worry unduly. Amla was looking at his serene best, putting Shami away disdainfully when he kept dropping short in a brief post-tea spell, driving Ashwin against the turn with a twirl of his wrists, and, on 79, keeping out a shin-high shooter from Bumrah as if it was a perfectly normal delivery. Just when he looked set to coast to a century and beyond, however, a moment's hesitation brought India roaring back to life.
Day 2
South Africa 335
India 182/5
India trail by 152 runs with 5 wickets remaining in the 1st innings
An aggressive unbeaten 85 from Virat Kohli led India's response to South Africa's 335, but South Africa kept chipping away at the other end to end the second day firmly in front. Fighting against a five-man attack that hardly ever let up the pressure, India went to stumps trailing by 152, with only five wickets in hand. Kohli was still at the crease, and with him was the combative Hardik Pandya, their sixth-wicket partnership worth 19.
On a pitch that didn't offer a great deal of bounce or seam movement, Kohli put South Africa under pressure by trusting in his subcontinental method of taking a big stride forward and trying to score quickly off good-length balls. According to ESPNcricinfo's ball-by-ball data, he scored 47 runs off 51 "good-length" balls from the fast bowlers. His cover drives, as always stood out, but there were a couple of gorgeous straight-bat punches past the bowler too.
For all that, he did not succeed in shifting South Africa away from their length. To Kohli, the four quicks bowled 41 balls just short of a good length, conceding 14 runs off them, and only eight balls that were either "full" or "short". Those numbers summed up how well they bowled.
Yet, the conditions were the most subcontinental India could have hoped for on this tour, and a couple of sizeable top-order partnerships could have put South Africa under serious pressure. Instead, India gifted them a couple of soft early wickets, back-to-back, and a third after their only major partnership, 79 between Kohli and M Vijay for the third wicket.
In a series notable for the volume of the stump mics in the TV broadcast, two Kohli comments and their aftermath summed up India's day.
First, as tea approached, he yelled out to Vijay, in chaste and not-entirely-repeatable Hindi, that South Africa would be extremely worried if their partnership were to extend deep into the evening. This was true. Vijay was batting with a certain degree of comfort against the fast bowlers, and, having overcome a slightly iffy start, was defending and leaving vigilantly.
Then, after tea, he grew a little loose against the left-arm spin of Keshav Maharaj. It's a feature of Vijay's game, a tendency to drop his guard against spin after focusing hard against pace. Time and again, he kept trying to cut balls from Maharaj that were neither short enough nor wide enough. On 46, the inevitable happened, and a top-edged cut settled inside Quinton de Kock's gloves.
Given India were only playing five specialist batsmen, the difference between 107 for 2 and 107 for 3 was significant. Especially when South Africa's attempts to find reverse-swing were beginning to bear fruit.
Kagiso Rabada came back into the attack immediately after Vijay's dismissal, and his first ball was a sign of what was to come - a back-of-a-length ball in the corridor that reared up and seamed away to beat Kohli's outside edge.
Over after over, Rabada kept hanging the ball outside off stump, getting it to move away from the right-hander, testing their patience, and making them wonder when the inswinger would come. Towards the end of the fourth over of his spell, Kohli yelled out to Rohit Sharma, "Aur nahin dalega, chautha over hai! [he won't bowl any more, it's his fourth over!]"
Rabada kept going, eventually sending down two more overs. The inswinger arrived twice either side of Kohli's yell, both delivered at the perfect moment, with perfect control, after dragging his prey across the crease. Both produced big lbw shouts. Kohli was adjudged not out, and South Africa lost a review on height; Rohit was given out, and India retained a review but lost a wicket, with ball-tracking returning an umpire's call verdict on height.
There was no real pressure release when Rabada's spell ended. Lungi Ngidi, the debutant, replaced him with no major loss in pace or wicket threat. An inside-edge saved Kohli when a full ball pinged him on the front pad, mid-shuffle, but Parthiv Patel, who scored 19 in a fifth-wicket stand of 32, had no such luck when he nicked a lifter in the corridor - an excellent way for Ngidi to pick up his first Test wicket.
It wasn't Ngidi's first major intervention of the day. In the tenth over of India's innings, he had moved swiftly to his right from mid-on, picked up, turned around, and fired a direct hit at the bowler's end to find a diving Cheteshwar Pujara short of his crease while going for a suicidal single off the first ball he faced. This ball came right after Morne Morkel had dismissed KL Rahul, whose leaden-footed push at a full ball only succeeded in spooning a return catch. India had gifted South Africa two early wickets.
In the morning session, a half-century from Faf du Plessis had helped South Africa add 66 to their overnight total for the loss of their four remaining wickets. A rash of missed chances - including two dropped catches off R Ashwin off successive balls to let off Rabada - frustrated India somewhat during a 42-run eighth-wicket stand between du Plessis and Rabada, but they created enough chances in an improved bowling performance for the let-offs to not cost them too much. Ishant Sharma ended up with three wickets, and Ashwin - who wrapped up the innings with the wicket of Morkel for the sixth time in six Tests - with four.
Day 3
South Africa 335 & 90/2 (29 ov)
India 307
South Africa lead by 118 runs with 8 wickets remaining
Virat Kohli's 21st Test hundred and two early wickets from Jasprit Bumrah kept India's bid for a series-levelling win alive, but AB de Villiers' skill and enterprise ensured South Africa remained in control of the Centurion Test. Having secured a 28-run first-innings lead, South Africa were 90 for 2 when bad light ended play ten overs into the post-tea session, with de Villiers having just brought up a fluent half-century. Dean Elgar was at the other end, on an ungainly but undefeated 36.
A tendency for indifferent bounce had been apparent even on day two of this Test match, and it grew pronounced when South Africa began their second innings. Bumrah, with his hit-the-deck style and exaggerated angle into the right-hander, accentuated the effect of this low bounce, and by the sixth over of the innings had sent back Aiden Markram and Hashim Amla in near-identical fashion: both times, he pitched the ball short of a good length, got it to skid through at knee height, and jam into pad with the batsman in midair, their muscle memory conditioning them to expect far more bounce.
It left South Africa 3 for 2, effectively 31 for 2, and with R Ashwin - who took the new ball - continually threatening both edges of the left-handed Elgar at the other end, India were piling on the pressure. The situation called for a clear-headed batsman with supreme eye and technique, and South Africa happened to have one in de Villiers.
Putting the misbehaving pitch out of his mind, he batted with great clarity and put away all the loose and marginally loose balls India offered him - they usually erred on the full side, or fed him on his pads in the quest for lbw - to race away at close to a run a ball. By tea, he had moved to 33 off 42 balls.
The post-tea session was brief and stop-start, with a short, sharp shower sending the players off the field for an hour, and the light turning murky 5.1 overs after resumption. In between, India missed a chance to send Elgar back on 29, when Bumrah, returning for his second spell, found his edge with extra bounce in the corridor. The ball flew a couple of feet to the left of the wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel, and he remained unmoved, despite Cheteshwar Pujara standing unusually wide at first slip.
Starting the day trailing by 152, India's last five wickets added 124 before Kohli was last man out in the eighth over after lunch, chipping Morne Morkel to long-on in a bid to score quick runs with only the No. 11 Bumrah for company.
The bulk of India's runs came in a rollicking seventh-wicket partnership between Kohli and Ashwin. The two came together after Hardik Pandya lost his wicket in a moment of carelessness in the seventh over of the day, and added 71 at close to five an over to put the pressure back on South Africa. The second new ball broke the partnership four overs before lunch, and the last three wickets added a further 26 runs before Kohli's dismissal.
Pandya began the day looking comfortable against the pace of Lungi Ngidi and then Kagiso Rabada from one end and the swing of Vernon Philander, bowling with the keeper up to the stumps, at the other. With Kohli quickly moving from his overnight 85 to bring up his 21st Test hundred in the sixth over of the day, the sixth-wicket partnership was beginning to worry South Africa when they were gifted a wicket out of the blue.
Sent back by Kohli after he pushed one to mid-on, Pandya was run out by a direct hit - he was past the crease when the throw hit the stumps, but he was in midair, having failed to ground either his bat or his feet. At that point, India were still trailing by 126.
In walked Ashwin. South Africa had targeted his body in Cape Town as well, and Rabada had greeted him to the crease by hitting him on the index finger of his right hand. This time, Rabada smacked his left glove off the third ball he faced, and followed up with another bouncer.
Ashwin's response was to go after Rabada in his next over, whenever he pitched anything remotely in his half of the pitch. Three fours flew through the off side, all off shots hit on the up, and Ashwin was suddenly batting on 22. An edge in Rabada's next over fell just short of the diving AB de Villiers at gully - the decision went up to the third umpire - and India could breathe again.
With Rabada losing his radar somewhat in an all-out search for wickets, he ended up conceding 40 in a seven-over spell. There was a low full-toss, which Kohli clipped away to the midwicket boundary, and a short, wide one that Ashwin cut for another four. Boundaries came off the other bowlers too, the pick of them a sweetly-timed chip over mid-off by Ashwin off Keshav Maharaj's left-arm spin.
South Africa took the second new ball at the start of the 82nd over, and Kohli, correctly guessing that Philander's first ball would be a fullish outswinger, sashayed forward and drove it to the cover boundary. He would play a similar shot in Philander's next over too, but by then India had lost two more wickets; Ashwin drove away from his body and nicked a Philander outswinger to second slip, and Mohammed Shami edged a steeply bouncing Morne Morkel delivery to first slip.
Ishant Sharma added 25 with Kohli before Morkel sent him back with a perfectly directed bouncer from round the wicket. With two balls left in the over, Jasprit Bumrah ducked awkwardly into a short ball, which ricocheted off the shoulder of his bat and into the grille of his helmet, and only just managed to keep another lifter off his ribcage.
Kohli had already been farming the strike with Ishant for company, and had brought up 150 with a fierce pull to the midwicket boundary off Morkel. Given how uncomfortable Bumrah was now looking, Kohli had to expand his risk-taking, and an attempted loft off Morkel brought his and India's innings to a close.
Day 4
South Africa 335 & 258
India 307 & 35/3 (23 ov, target: 287)
India require another 252 runs with 7 wickets remaining
With one day left to play at SuperSport Park, South Africa are seven wickets from taking an unassailable 2-0 lead, and India are a distant 252 runs from levelling the Test series. Having bowled South Africa out for 258 in their second innings, India were left with the task of chasing 287 with the best part of four sessions remaining. They ended day four 35 for 3, with two of their top-order batsmen already lost to treacherous low bounce, and another out to a loose shot.
The new ball had shown a definite tendency to keep low at the start of South Africa's second innings on day three, and Jasprit Bumrah had removed Aiden Markram and Hashim Amla with shooters pitching short of a good length. India lost M Vijay and Virat Kohli in the same manner; Vijay played on to one from Rabada that shot through at just above ankle height; Kohli was lbw to a nip-backer from Lungi Ngidi that went through at knee height.
Given that the older ball did not misbehave quite as much in South Africa's innings, India might have accepted it if they had only lost those two wickets in the 23 overs they played until stumps. They lost one more, however, to a ball that didn't deserve a wicket; Ngidi bowled it short and wide, and perhaps it stopped slightly on KL Rahul - he shaped to cut, checked his shot as he played it, and ended up slicing it straight into backward point's hands.
At stumps, Cheteshwar Pujara was batting on 11 and with him was Parthiv Patel - promoted ahead of Rohit Sharma to No. 5, possibly since he's the only left-hander in India's XI - on 5.
South Africa were bowled out in the tenth over after tea, with Mohammed Shami's four wickets playing a key role in keeping India in the contest. Shami's key interventions came when he took three wickets in a seven-over spell before lunch, after AB de Villiers and Dean Elgar had put on 141 for the third wicket.
Bumrah and Ishant Sharma were also among the wickets, finishing with 5 for 110 between them, while R Ashwin toiled wicketless for 29.2 overs before ending the innings by getting last man Ngidi caught in the deep.
Thanks to the slowness of the pitch, low bounce was a manageable threat for South Africa's batsmen once the ball became older and softer. Even so, de Villiers breathed a sigh of relief when Bumrah got one to keep low in the fourth over of the morning as well, but this time the line was just outside off stump.
Conditions were otherwise reasonably good to bat in, and with India also offering de Villiers release balls every now and then - width the most frequent culprit - South Africa's lead was beginning to trouble India, and their worries were compounded by Elgar's stay. He never looked comfortable at the crease, particularly against Ashwin's offspin but kept fighting cussedly, bringing up his half-century with a drive through extra-cover off Ishant.
The breakthrough arrived thanks to extra bounce, Shami getting one to rear at de Villiers in the corridor to find a bit of glove through to Parthiv Patel. Then, Shami dropped one short to Elgar, who had pulled a similar ball to the boundary at the start of his spell, but this time he hit it in the air and within range of KL Rahul patrolling the square-leg boundary.
Ashwin, who kept getting the ball to dip into awkward areas and turn sharply, nearly had a wicket in the over after Elgar's dismissal. Faf du Plessis, stretching forward, failed to get to the pitch of an offbreak and flicked it in the air. Rahul, diving full-length to his right at leg gully, only got his fingertips to it.
There was more frustration waiting for India in the next over. Shami kept hitting a good length outside off stump, and finding just a bit of seam movement. De Kock, seemingly unaware of the option of leaving the ball, kept throwing his hands at it. Three successive edges flew to the boundary, two wide of the slips and one just beyond Parthiv's reach as he dived to his left. The next ball produced another poke from de Kock; this time, it was close enough to Parthiv for him to take the catch.
The game had rattled along in the morning session; it nearly came to a standstill after tea, with both sides sitting back and waiting for a mistake from the other. It was understandable, given how delicately poised the Test match was. Bowling in tandem, Hardik Pandya and Ishant kept bowling just short of a good length, often sending down cutters, and conceded only 14 runs in 11 overs, discomfiting both du Plessis and Vernon Philander with movement or inconsistent bounce but without creating a chance.
It took a short, harmless-looking ball to end the seventh-wicket partnership at 46, Philander unbalanced on the pull and caught at square leg. Then, in his next over, Ishant got one to lift unexpectedly in the fifth-stump channel, and Keshav Maharaj nicked to Parthiv off the shoulder of the bat.
Du Plessis remained at the crease, forever a thorn in India's flesh; when he pulled the returning Shami for four off the last ball before tea, he had moved to 37 off 122 balls. He survived a dropped chance on 46 when Bumrah put down a return catch, but fell to a near-replay in his next over, two short of his second fifty of the match. In between, Shami sent back Kagiso Rabada with bounce and seam movement in the corridor, Virat Kohli taking a good, low catch at second slip.
Day 5
South Africa 335 & 258
India 307 & 151 (50.2 ov, target: 287)
South Africa won by 135 runs
It was a brown banana peel for South Africa. Morne Morkel said it was 100% like bowling in India. Virat Kohli batted as if he was in India. However, in the end South Africa not only dodged a bullet, they caught the bullet and shred it into pieces with their determined batting, ruthless bowling and sensational fielding, beating India by 135 runs and winning back the Freedom Trophy.
South Africa fined for slow over-rate
South Africa have been fined 20% of their match fees for their slow over-rate in the second Test against India. Match referee Chris Broad found them to be two overs short of their target with time allowances taken into consideration. Captain Faf du Plessis pleaded guilty to the offence and accepted the sanctions. He was fined 40% of his match fee - double that of his team, in accordance with the ICC's rules.
South Africa began the day needing seven wickets, but closed the match even before the lunch break. Lungi Ngidi ended his impressive debut with a six-for, but the start of the final collapse was self-inflicted. When he was under pressure to keep his place in the XI in the West Indies, Cheteshwar Pujara ran himself out. In Centurion, he became only the 23rd player to be run out twice in the same Test.
As with the first-ball duck in the first innings, Pujara's mouth wrote a cheque his knees couldn't cash. With AB de Villiers and Ngidi chasing after a ball, Pujara overestimated his speed and was caught short. The other overnight batsman, Parthiv Patel, batting ahead of Rohit Sharma, soon hooked Kagiso Rabada in the air, and Morne Morkel took a splendid diving catch after running to his right at fine leg.
Hardik Pandya and R Ashwin have provided resistance with the bat earlier in the series, but this time they couldn't. Pandya repepated his first innings dismissal from Cape Town, edging when looking to ramp a wide bouncer. Ashwin fell on the loose drive. Seven down, India still needed 200 to win.
Rohit and Mohammed Shami then added 54 runs to delay the inevitable and bring India to the brink of the lunch. However, in the last over before the scheduled lunch break, de Villiers pulled off a sensational catch diving forward at deep fine leg. Rohit had got enough bat on his pull shot, which resulted in a low flat offering. Given only a split second, de Villiers judged it perfectly, took the required paces, threw himself at the ball and caught it smoothly. Not for a moment did he look like dropping the chance. Usually these low catches go to the third umpire; there was no need here
Lunch was now delayed, and moments later, Ngidi had Shami caught at mid-on, his fifth wicket. The crowd wasn't big given it was Wednesday morning, but the appreciation was whole-hearted and Ngidi soaked it all in, kissing the badge on his shirt and then walking back to fine leg to an even bigger applause. He went on to make it one better in the next over and end the Test.
3rd Test
Day 1
India 187
South Africa 6/1 (6 ov)
South Africa trail by 181 runs with 9 wickets remaining in the 1st innings
Virat Kohli attacked, Cheteshwar Pujara defended and defended solidly and Bhuvneshwar Kumar applied himself in the end to score 134 runs between them. But the rest - extras included - added only 53 more as India went from 144 for 4 to 187 all out on the first day of the Wanderers Test. India were not out of it yet on the evidence of the tumultuous six overs South Africa faced before stumps, losing Aiden Markram to Bhuvneshwar.
When India made the bold move of batting first on a green pitch with a lot of seam movement, despite all the pressure their batting has been under, they would have hoped for a lot of grit and a bit of luck to ride out these tough conditions. On what was not the prettiest day of Test cricket, Pujara and Kohli showed plenty of grit, some luck followed through dropped catches and a missed review, but India handed back the advantage with some ordinary batting from the lower middle order, which was missing R Ashwin as they decided to play an all-seam attack.
If India were still in the contest, it was down to fielding lapses from South Africa. Kohli was dropped on 11 and 32, Pujara was on nought when the hosts appealed half-heartedly for an lbw and chose not to review a not-out call that would have been overturned. There was more general sloppiness in the field, and comeback man Ajinkya Rahane was on 3 when he was caught behind off a Vernon Philander no-ball.
Philander was in the thick of the action all day. He began the Test with a spell of 8-7-1-1, the most economical first eight overs for a South Africa bowler in all Tests since readmission. His victim was KL Rahul, with a ball that seamed back in and took the inside edge to become one of Quinton de Kock's five catches, but there was a moment when he could have supported his fellow fast bowler a bit better. Kagiso Rabada drew a Kohli top edge with a surprise bouncer, which would have been a sitter had Philander from mid-off or Markram from cover decided early enough to go for it. Neither of them did, and eventually it was too late for Philander to make up with a dive.
While Philander could be accused of being a little too short through the day, his first spell, with the ball seaming both ways, was still a testing one. Pujara took 31 of those 48 balls, which means 31 of the 41 balls Philander bowled while he was at the wicket.
There was nothing loose on offer even though South Africa didn't do enough to make India play and edge balls. With so much seam movement available, you had to either wait for a rank delivery or take the risk of going after decent ones. Pujara took the first route. He just kept playing the line, making sure he didn't follow the ball when it seamed away, and hoping he got an inside edge or that the ball did too much when it seamed back in. There were ironic cheers when Pujara set off for a run off the 45th ball he faced only for the umpire to call it a leg-bye. There was another big cheer when he faced his 50th ball, still on zero. When the run finally came, 81 minutes into his innings, having refused to play a loose shot, Pujara had made the bowlers bowl on his pads.
India's captain took the other route. He showed more urgency, nailing drives every time a ball presented itself for the shot. There was nothing half-hearted - as with M Vijay's drive to get out - about Kohli's innings. This 84-run third-wicket partnership couldn't have done without him at the other end. You couldn't just stand there and not score. Kohli backed his eye to pick errors in length early and punish them. There were two cracking cover drives, one moments after he had been dropped by Philander. Rabada tried the one-two trick by threatening his outside edge repeatedly and then going for the lbw ball, but he never really got it right, and Kohli kept clipping him away.
The shots didn't stop; he had to keep playing them on this pitch even though they meant a slightly higher risk than usual. Post lunch, Kohli went to cut Morne Morkel, the ball was too wide, took the toe end, but this time AB de Villiers put him down at third slip as the ball dipped on him rather late. Just as the partnership was getting into the realm of the dangerous, Ngidi finally drew the edge from Kohli, a solid one on the drive. The catch nearly blew de Villiers off his feet, but he hung on, injuring his finger in the process.
Rahane couldn't make the most of his break as Morkel soon trapped him lbw with a full straight ball. Apart from the fielding, South Africa could look back at the wide lines and lengths that kept beating the bat but were not full enough to take the edge. However, the run-rate always hovered around two, which meant they could get India out cheaply if they got their act together.
It needed a change in plans for that to happen. There was debate if South Africa would have been better served by a proper batsman and not an allrounder in Andile Phehlukwayo. What can the fifth bowler do on such a pitch that the main four can't? Take an edge from Pujara, maybe. All day long, Pujara had been playing inside the line of balls that seamed away, but this one was perhaps slower, perhaps it seamed less, and took the edge through.
The lower-middle order then capitulated. Parthiv Patel nicked off, Hardik Pandya top-edged a ball that was not there for the pull, Mohammed Shami hit straight to mid-off, and South Africa were right back. The only application and resistance from the tail came from Bhuvneshwar, whose 30 helped give India something to bowl at.
Day 2
India 187 & 49/1 (17 ov)
South Africa 194
India lead by 42 runs with 9 wickets remaining
The Wanderers Test is now a one-innings shootout on a treacherous surface, and India have their noses well ahead, ending day two 42 ahead with nine wickets in hand. Hashim Amla put on a clinic on how to bat on a tough pitch, he got support in the form of 30s from nightwatchman Kagiso Rabada and Vernon Philander, but Japsrit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar combined to keep the first-innings deficit down to seven. If South Africa had a slender lead, they were also looking at the prospect of having to bat last on a pitch getting increasingly uneven to go with the seam movement.
Awed with some of Virat Kohli's stroke-play, the other half-centurion for India, Cheteshwar Pujara, said Kohli played some shots not many could have played on this pitch with extravagant bounce and seam movement. On day two, Amla batted with the control of Pujara and the flair of Kohli. While Amla's control percentage according to ESPNcricinfo's logs was marginally under Pujara's, a lot of time Pujara was only leaving balls. Nobody scored more in-control runs in this Test than Amla's 49 such runs.
Pujara also said if anybody got a hundred on this track, it would have been a brilliant innings. It would need more than individual brilliance: partners to bat with him. When Amla fell for 61, he was the seventh wicket. After his 64-run partnership with Rabada, this seventh-wicket stand with Philander was only the second time Amla had some support in the innings. For a while it did seem Bhuvneshwar, too, was going to run out of support, especially when Rabada and Amla followed up a 23-run first hour with 52 in the second.
In Bhuvneshwar's first spell of 6-5-1-1, a wicket seemed likelier to arrive than a run. One wicket did arrive too, after 17 balls of toying around with Dean Elgar's edge, Bhvuneshwar finally hit the willow. Parthiv Patel was switched on in this Test, diving to his left to complete the catch. Rabada and Amla then rode through the tough period before targeting Mohammed Shami and Bumrah. Rabada even played the Amla-in-the-mirror flick from the line of off for a four to square leg.
Not for the first time on the tour, Shami let India down. The first overs of each of his spells brought a release of pressure: he began with five wides in his first, and short and wide in his second and third. In a Test in which scoring runs has involved a lot of risk, Shami went at 3.83 an over, and yet bowled only two overs fewer than the much more impressive Ishant Sharma.
It was Ishant who broke the threatening partnership between Amla and Rabada minutes before lunch. It was Ishant who supported Bhuvneshwar in his first spell after lunch. This was a spell in which Bhuvneshwar cleaned up AB de Villiers, five runs after he had survived an lbw shout from Ishant where a review could have sent him on his way. This is when India needed a good follow-up act.
When Bumrah was introduced in the middle of the afternoon, South Africa were 97 for 4. Amla was batting like a dream, and India were still behind the game. They couldn't have afforded a repeat of the hour Bumrah and Shami had given them in the morning. Bumrah made sure it didn't happen. He bowled with pace and he hit the pitch hard, extracting all the unevenness out of the pitch. Faf du Plessis was gone shouldering arms, Quinten de Kock looking to drive on the up, repeating the mistake de Villiers had made. At 125 for 6, India were ahead now, but there was still Amla.
Batting here remained a game of heightened awareness and concentration, with a higher level of risk than usual, plus a lot of luck. On such a track Amla was going at better than a run every two balls. His shuffle was even more pronounced in this innings, getting closer to balls seaming away and also giving him access to the leg side. On more than a few occasions India tried to go behind his legs, but Amla kept hitting those balls to fine leg and square leg. Driving here has been the most difficult shot but Amla is somebody who can do so without having to come forward to drive. He kept punching off the back foot.
The support Amla needed came from Philander. The two added 44 for the seventh wicket. Philander pulled the short ball with authority, and played the push-drive well. Shami was again their victim, but eventually Bumrah's attempt to go behind Amla's legs succeeded. Not in the desired manner, though. Amla had this straight ball covered, but it stopped a touch and the flick went in the air and straight to square leg three-fourths of the way to the boundary.
Philander soon fell to the hook off the bowling of Shami, and Bumrah took the wickets of Andile Phehlukwayo and Lungi Ngidi to complete his five-for. India would have noticed South Africa didn't survive much better than them, but went at close to three an over as opposed to India's 2.42. They followed the lead, and snuck in a quick 16 from Parthiv Patel in the second innings even before the openers came together. KL Rahul and M Vijay then batted assuredly, adding 32 in 12 overs as South Africa continued to miss their targets: bowling too wide and too short to take the edges.
Day 3
India 187 & 247
South Africa 194 & 17/1 (8.3 ov, target: 241)
South Africa require another 224 runs with 9 wickets remaining
On their most glorious day of cricket on this tour of South Africa, India closed in on a rare Test win in conditions that required courage, skill and some luck, but one blow too many to the batsmen forced the umpires to take the players off the field with South Africa 17 for 1 chasing an improbable 241.
South Africa were scheduled to bat for 65 minutes before stumps, but the day's play did not get that far, with the umpires taking the players off after Dean Elgar was struck on the grille of his helmet by a short, steeply rising ball from Jasprit Bumrah. It was the fourth time Elgar had been hit on the body in his brief innings. The captains met the match referee after the incident, but the future of the match remained unclear.
In the post-match press conference, India manager Sunil Subramaniam said the match officials would make a call on the match on the fourth morning. He said India had no complaints about the pitch, contending that it had behaved the same way on all three days, and that they would want the game to continue.
This may have had a lot to do with the match situation, engineered by some brilliant batting. Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and M Vijay batted out of their skins, putting behind them the blows they took from the inconsistent and exaggerated bounce, going through periods of excessive seam movement, putting every scoring opportunity away. The lower order, led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar with a composed 33 and Mohammed Shami with a whirlwind 27, then all but put the matter beyond South Africa, setting the hosts 241 to win.
Vijay was hit five times in the first session, Kohli wore one length ball on his glove, and by the time Rahane was hit on his bare back elbow India were in such a good position that Rahane sent back the physio, who had been kept busy earlier. India didn't want to risk giving a suggestion that this pitch was dangerous; they were desperate to win, they didn't mind a bruised rib or finger, and probably didn't imagine or think of worse.
Before you talk about padding and arm guards and helmets, you must watch a net session and watch from up close these Test cricketers face bouncers chucked at them by the sidearm. It takes half a second to leave the bowler's hand and reach the batsman. Facing accurate short-pitched fast bowling on true pitches or in the nets is hard enough; here the bounce was unpredictable. Sometimes it jumped off a length, and also seamed back in, leaving the batsmen nowhere to go. Umpires chatted often, looking worriedly at some of the good-length areas, and a piece or two of the pitch that had come off.
India, they were not bothered. They had their eye on the prize. They began the day effectively 42 for 1, having lost only their pinch-hitter Parthiv Patel. Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel took out KL Rahul and Cheteshwar Pujara in the first five overs of the day, and South Africa sensed an opportunity here. Then Vijay and Kohli then did what Pujara and Kohli did in the first innings.
What a day it was for India to find the Vijay that had gone missing in the first five innings of this series. The pitch has usually been at its worst in the first hour of each day; on the third day it was also dangerous. Vijay bore most of the brunt. However, his judgement didn't waver. This was a proper dig-in: he left judiciously, drove only when the ball was too full, and was always on the lookout for a single. He scored only 25 off 127 balls, but he weathered the new ball and the pitch. The pitch was never going to get flat, but he made the job of those following him a little easier.
Kohli, at the other end, got into better positions to attack. There was one drive ball in the first whole first hour, and Kohli nailed the drive for four. That hour produced just 18 runs and two wickets. His reaction to counter the excessive seam movement was to get as far forward as possible, never mind the high pace of bowlers other than Philander. What Kohli did was exceptional because he scored at a rate of more than three an over.
For the bowlers there was a difficulty too: it seamed too much, and the ball often missed the edges. Like with India's change bowlers in the second hour of day two, the half-volleys began to arrive, and Kohli was in no mood to miss any. It eventually took a big seaming delivery from Kagiso Rabada to snake past Kohli's inside edge and hit the top of off stump. Rabada had earlier bowled Vijay with a yorker than proved to be the last ball before lunch.
The most impressive part of Kohli's innings, though, was his leaving outside off stump, which he didn't do enough of in Cape Town. He didn't follow with his hands balls that seamed away. If he did on the odd occasion, he went back and looked at the imaginary line he had given himself to stay in, to not play outside of.
Just like the leave, Kohli might have wished he had incorporated Rahane into his plans in Cape Town and Bhuvneshwar in Centurion. Rahane's counterattack at the other end was nothing short of sensational. Just like in Melbourne in 2014-15, Rahane was there by his captain when South Africa began to bowl better to him. A flurry of boundaries either side of Kohli's dismissal took him to 27 off 25 at one point.
Rahane drove on the up, waved off help when hit, ran like a gazelle, cut over the infield, and shepherded Bhuvneshwar. This must have been a bittersweet partnership for Kohli: on the one hand, it was swiftly taking the Test away from South Africa, but it was taking a dead rubber away after the duo at the crease had been left out of the last Test. After Rahane finally fell to a strangle down the leg side, Mohammed Shami swung his bat wildly, hitting the first six of the match, then the second, and taking India to an extremely comfortable position.
Day 4
India 187 & 247
South Africa 194 & 177 (target: 241)
India won by 63 runs
India couldn't dismiss Dean Elgar at all, but found a way around him to complete their third Test win in South Africa. He was ridiculed on the third evening for a short ball that hit him in the face and caused an interruption in the play, but Elgar tried his darnedest - in vain - to deny India. The visitors were efficient and ruthless even as Elgar and Hashim Amla went more than half the day without losing a wicket and added 119 of the 241 required for the second wicket. India waited and waited for the first breakthrough without giving away free runs, and once the wicket came they swooped in on the kill. The last nine wickets fell for 53 runs.
As at Lord's 2014, Ishant Sharma began the slide with a mid-afternoon spell of 7-2-15-2, but here the load was shared. His victims were big: Amla and Faf du Plessis. Jasprit Bumrah was equally impressive in his nine-over spell that followed up with wickets of AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock. Once the two were taken off, Mohammed Shami came back from an average morning with quick, full and accurate bowling to run through the tail.
This was one of India's great wins in Test cricket as they came here beleaguered, having lost the series, and were presented with a treacherous surface. They got most of their selections right, made the bold move of batting first, batted with extreme courage and determination with contributions all around, including a couple of 30s from Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Having set South Africa 241, they would have looked at an easy job, but there were hiccups. Play was suspended 19 minutes before stumps on the third evening as the umpires were concerned about the players' safety. After meetings, it was decided the pitch would be given a chance on the fourth morning, but overnight and early-morning rain pushed India's quest for a win back by an hour.
The pitch did show signs it had settled down a little with the uneven bounce becoming a lesser concern for the batsmen than the seam movement. Elgar took eight blows on the body, including four on the third evening. Amla was rapped on the gloves by length balls a couple of times. Between them they were beaten 26 times, but they kept batting on. Elgar had to keep getting attention on his forearm. Amla wore reinforced gloves. Inch by inch they took South Africa closer.
Elgar showed a lot of ticker in not getting perturbed by the number of blows he took. He showed great judgement in leaving the ball, didn't follow the ones that seamed away from him, and kept nudging away ones and twos. There were a few lucky runs between the slips and the gullies, but you need that in these highly unusual circumstances and conditions.
Amla was more in control of what he was doing, shuffling well across to know what lines to leave and then also opening up the leg side for runs. India tried going behind his legs, but his bat kept coming down in time. The punch to balls higher than his waist, a shot almost unique to Amla, continued to be his friend. In his 40s, when Amla got stuck and scored just two runs off 39 balls, the punch came to his rescue and saw him through to a second fifty in the match.
Elgar's method was different. When India put together a spell of 25 balls for just two runs, he ended it with a hoick over square leg. Elgar was not there to look pretty. He was there to just be. As long as he could be. When he reached his fifty, after accepting congratulations from Amla and the crowd, he quietly knocked the left side of his chest, then his thigh pad twice, and again his chest, his heart. He had shown enough of it.
India played the waiting game. This was a mature spell of play. When not much was happening they sought to shut down the scoring. Hardik Pandya did a job too, bowling six overs for 15. If the worst happened, India wanted to be in the game by the time the new ball was taken.
By the time Ishant was brought back about 25 minutes before tea, South Africa needed 117 runs and the second new ball would be available in 28 overs. Having looked to get Ama behind his legs because of his shuffle, India now had a short midwicket in place. Ishant, the rare bowler pitching balls on a good length, was now rewarded. For the second time in the Test, Amla failed to keep a clip to leg down, and Pandya at short midwicket accepted the catch.
As it happens in fourth innings, more so on pitches like these, the new batsmen find it incredibly difficult to bat. This was India's moment. They couldn't afford another partnership. South Africa needed one more man to bat out of his skin to add to the efforts of Elgar and Amla. De Villiers was the man who could run away with it. Bumrah, though, oproduced a ball that only a settled batsman could have avoided. It reared off a length, and held its line, and the edge was taken at gully.
On the other side of tea, Ishant and Bumrah did their one-two again. Ishant got one to nip back in and stay low too to hit du Plessis' stumps. Quinton de Kock grabbed a golden duck with Bumrah bowling quick and straight at his stumps. The pace and efficiency of this four-pronged attack was too much for the rest. Elgar, who carried his bat with 86 not out off 240 balls of pure grit, and Lungi Ngidi fought hard with the last-wicket stand of 16, but they were only delaying the inevitable.
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