Mohali, Nov 6 Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin picked up three wickets to reduce South Africa to 127/5 at lunch in their first innings on the second day of the first Test in reply to India’s score of 201 here on Friday.
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India started the day with a lead of 142 runs and 8 wickets in hand.
India chose Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav as their two fast bowlers with Ishant Sharma serving a one-match ban for misconduct during the third test in Sri Lanka.
But like in the first innings for the Proteas, it was a part-time bowler who sparked the comeback for the visitors.
Faf’s performance in this Test was hugely disappointing as he could only manage a run in the entire match.
In spite of the margin of defeat the Proteas can take quite a lot out of the match, not the least being the performance of the spin attack with Dean Elgar, Simon Harmer and Imran Tahir sharing 15 wickets between them.
It was Mishra, who accounted for the prized wicket of de Villiers, while Ashwin got rid of Imran Tahir (4) to get to his five-wicket haul and also his 150th wicket in Tests.
The leg-spinner had another chance of getting a wicket a ball later but failed to take a return catch from new-man Dale Steyn’s full-blooded hit.
Ashwin produced onfield fitness certificate by turning a memorable performance by dismissing half of the South Africa batsmen who were earlier quoted saying “Ashwin will be the most risky bowler”.
Left-arm spinner Jadeja returned to deal a bigger blow when he castled Hashim Amla, the South Africa captain offering no shot to a ball that crashed onto his middle stump.
South Africa spin bowling coach Claude Henderson conceded his team was in a hard position. The South Afriacn’s were expected to struggle and they did, giving away 19 wickets to spinners.
Hopefully, it is a one-off situation because the pacemen require all the confidence and opportunities to parade their skills at the highest level against batsmen of high quality like Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers. The track here might just be the template for rest of the three Test venues – Bengaluru, Nagpur and Delhi.
Part-timer Van Zyl claimed the vital breakthrough for South Africa when he induced an edge from Kohli (29) and Vilas, standing up, took a good catch behind the stumps.
India’s second innings saw the quick dismissal of left-hander Shikhar Dhawan, caught in the slip cordon without scoring for the second time in the match, but Vijay and Pujara dug in to add 86 for the second wicket.
“Yes. I think that was the case.
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We know that it has been committed, it will be reflected upon and corrected, next time we come out to play”, Kohli, who won his first home game as captain, said.
