India vs South Africa, three talking points from Day 2: Batting brain-freeze and Tahir’s vindication

The second day of the third Test between India and South Africa saw cricket coming a full circle. HashimAmla and Dean Elgar came out to bat in the morning of day two when South Africa was 11 for the loss of two wickets — Stiaan van Zyl and nightwatchman Imran Tahir were the batsmen dismissed. After three sessions and 20 wickets, it isAmla and Elgar again on the crease at the close of day’s play after van Zyl and Tahir succumbed to déjà vu. Thursday morning’s horrors must be playing in Amla’s mind as his team now faces the herculean task of chasing down 278 more runs on a far from friendly track. South Africa lost half their wickets when they reached 12, a run more than their overnight score. Ashwin and Jadeja ran riot through their batting lineup, accounting for nine wickets between them, and bowling the Proteas out for a record low of 79. The cricketing world talked of the treacherous turning track, but a few other talking points from the day’s play deserve attention. Batting Failure On a day when 20 wickets fell, one has to talk about the utter failure of the batsmen. True, Nagpur is a turning track, but wasn’t it expected? The South Africans knew it would be spinner’s paradise, yet they looked unprepared and overwhelmed by what went down. No track can justify a team that boasts of HashimAmla, AB de Viliers and Faf du Plessis, reaching to a full stop at 79. Hostile pitch aside, the Proteas fell to their bad shot selection. [caption id=“attachment_2522900” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] South African players celebrates the wicket of India’s Shikhar Dhawan during the second day of the 3rd test match in Nagpur on Thursday. PTI[/caption] 36, 2, 37, 17, 5, 7, 23, 43 and 0, 7. These numbers are Amla’sscores during his India tour, starting from the T20Is to the washed out Bangalore Test. They are hardly representative of Amla and his aura but indicate just how bad his trip to India has been. On Thursday he departed trying to sweep one with extra bounce from Ashwin. AB de Villiers succumbed to a soft one when he completely misjudged Jadeja and returned him a cozy catch. Du Plessis’ dismissal was the most glaring one when he tried to an ugly inside-out cover drive atJadeja’s straighter one. He was bowled when the ball sneaked in the massive gap between his bat and pad. One can still comprehend South Africa’s struggles on a perilous track, but aren’t subcontinent batsmen comfortable with spin? Tahir’s five-for in India’s second innings tells a different story. The home team didn’t show any improvement on their first innings’ batting problems. Gavaskar had called the entire Indian top order, save Murali Vijay, “below-par” after Wednesday’s play. He wouldn’t have much good to say about their second innings too. Considering the track, “par” itself is quite low and India look comfortable. But they must not get comfortable with the way they are batting right now. India’s spinnersvs South Africa’s spinners Ashwin and Jadeja proved that no matter how spin-friendly the track may be, you still have the put the ball in the right areas consistently. Yes, the pitch was tailor made for them, but they extracted the most out of it unlike South African spinners. Harmer could only get a single wicket off his 18 overs and his inconsistent line also saw him leak runs. Morkel was more successful with his slow off-cutters, scalping three and giving away just 19 runs off his 10 overs — numbers that should not exist for a seamer on a pitch like this. Imran Tahir was the pick of the lot and bagged five wickets in little time — Proteas’ reply in kind to Ashwin. Why was Tahir held back? Tahirpicked up the important wickets of Dhawan, Kohli and Rahaneand capped it with Saha and Mishra to complete his five-wicket haul, which makes one wonder why  he was held back for so long. Harmer wasn’t working out, and even Duminy, who ended up giving away 24 runs in two overs, was tried before Tahir. The leggy was not tried before 24 overs were bowled with India looking comfortable at 81/2 and Dhawan and Kohli on the crease. Tahir was brought on late in the first innings too and even in Mohali.  It made little sense to hold back Tahir on a track like this. South Africa had seen the amount of damage Ashwin and Jadeja inflicted. And much damage was already done by the time Tahir was handed the ball. From 81 for the loss of two, India slumped to 173 and Tahir was vindicated. The match doesn’t look like it will last the entirety of the third day and India seems to heading for a comfortable win, considering the events that have transpired up till now. On a turning pitch, Amla and Co need to pull off a miracle to turn things around.