 "India captain Rishabh Pant was caught-behind for 7 while charging down the track against South African pacer Marco Jansen, attempting to smash the in-form pacer out of the park. AP")
India continued to be affected by batting collapses in the ongoing Test series in South Africa despite the wicket at Guwahati’s Barsapara Stadium being nowhere close to the minefield that was served at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens. On a wicket where South Africa posted a commanding 489 after opting to bat, India found themselves seven down with a little over 100 on the board, losing wickets in a heap on either side of the tea interval .
LIVE | India vs South Africa, 2nd Test in Guwahati, Day 3
Yashasvi Jaiswal helped India begin the day on a confident note from their overnight score of 9 for no loss, building a 65-run opening stand with KL Rahul. He later brought up his maiden Test fifty against South Africa, as well as the first by an Indian batter in the ongoing series.
Jaiswal and B Sai Sudharsan, replacing injured skipper Shubman Gill and batting at his usual spot of No 3, were in a comfortable position with around 15 minutes left in the morning session, and all they had to do was to bat out the remaining overs of the session.
Jaiswal, however, was undone by a delivery from veteran off-spinner Simon Harmer that reared up higher than usual, getting a leading edge towards backward point where the tall Marco Jansen lunged forward to complete a fine catch. That opened the proverbial floodgates, with Ryan Rickelton collecting a fine catch at midwicket to dismiss Sai Sudharsan in Harmer’s next over.
Jansen runs through the middle order with a four-wicket burst
Jansen, brought back shortly before tea, struck towards the end of the session with Dhruv Jurel, retained purely as a batter in this Test series, miscuing the ball towards wide mid on while attempting to pull a short delivery, Keshav Maharaj completing a fine catch while running backwards.
India were reduced to 102/4 at tea as a result. The procession, however, was by no means done, with Jansen running through the Indian middle order on the other side of the interval.
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View AllRishabh Pant, leading India in place of Gill in Guwahati who had opened his account with a six, perished after charging down the track against Jansen, getting caught-behind off a deflection off the toe-end of the bat.
The tall pacer would then bounce both all-rounders Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ravindra Jadeja out thereafter, both getting caught in the slip region. While Reddy got a deflection off his glove with Markram collecting a one-handed blinder , Jadeja was unlucky as the ball clipped the toe end of his bat after a deflection off his shoulder, with Harmer collecting a simple catch.
India were reduced to 122/7 after Jadeja’s dismissal in response to South Africa’s massive first innings total of 489 , at which point even securing a draw looked like a Herculean task.