Earlier in the day, riding on Ashwin’s 14th five wicket haul and Ravindra Jadeja’s four wickets, India dismissed the visitors for a paltry 79 in their first innings, the lowest ever total by any team against India in Tests to get a handsome 136-run lead. What that meant was South Africa needed to score 309 to win the Test and they had lost a couple of wickets by close of play, getting to 32 on the board. Coincidentally, even the unbeaten batsmen are the same as Wednesday in Hashim Amla and Dean Elgar. Frankly, on a surface that is extracting some serious turn and bounce, their chances of chasing anything in excess of 200, let alone over 300 is next to nil.
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The pitch has been a lottery for batsmen throughout the match and the reason why India have managed to get ahead can be seen in the bowling statistics. Sure, there was enough purchase for the spinners, something that Simon Harmer and Co. would have fancied, but no early signs of Tahir gave India some respite.
Dhawan and Vijay put on 50 for the first wicket before South Africa hit back to remove both batsmen in the space of 19 runs. Murali Vijay edged him to Amla at first slip and India were one down for 8.
For South Africa, the early damage was done by lanky pacer Morkel, who grabbed a superb 3/35 in three spells before limping off the field after bowling the first ball of his fourth.
Only three batsmen reached the 2-figure mark, with JP Duminy (35) leading the charts. Both rotated the strike well, in addition to the occasional boundary that came along. Clearly because of what happened once he arrived on scene. At the end of Day 2, 32 wickets have fallen. Dhawan was the first to go, opting to reverse sweep Tahir. Rohit Sharma and Wriddhiman Saha were at the crease when tea was called.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Amit Mishra got India to the highest total of the series so far – 215, helped by Vilas missing a stumping opportunity – but then fell in quick succession as the hosts’ innings met a sudden end.
Resuming play with their over night score of 11 runs for the loss of 2 wickets, South Africa lost wickets at regular intervals to slump at 12 runs for the loss of 5 wickets.
Tahir completed proceeding by claiming Amit Mishra (14), in the process claiming five wickets for 38 runs. Ashwin set the tone in the first over of the day with a delightful first over.
As the ball turned and kept low, Ashwin removed Dean Elgar off the fifth delivery of the day, the left-hander being bowled off the inside edge on his overnight score of seven. “It’s challenging conditions but not something unexpected”, Harmer said.
The in-form AB de Villiers was sent back for naught by Jadeja, who picked up 4 wickets. Duminy looked the most assured of the lot. Yes, the pitch was tailor made for them, but they extracted the most out of it unlike South African spinners.
Kagiso Rabada, the 20-year-old paceman in his third test, earned his second wicket when he bowled Jadeja to break up the combination with Saha.
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The 20 wickets equals the record for the most wickets to fall in a day of Test cricket on the sub-continent.
