Kotla Test, talking points: Rahane steals the show, Amla stays stubborn and Indian bowlers struggle

Throughout this Freedom series, the failure of the South African batting lineup to apply themselves has occupied quite a lot of column inches and air time. On the comparatively benign pitches of Bangalore and Delhi (in the first innings), they crumbled. On the rank turners in Mohali and Nagpur, they struggled even more. It has taken till the penultimate day of the four-match series for the much fancied batting lineup to put up a fight as Temba Bavuma, Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers put up admirable resistance to frustrate India. After Virat Kohli declared with a target of 481 runs for South Africa and a little over five sessions for his bowlers to complete the whitewash, South Africa batted out 72 overs, scoring 72 runs and crucially, losing just two wickets. It was not a day for ‘highlights’ as we know the term in cricket, but it was fascinating Test cricket. Here are the talking points. Ajinkya Rahane steals the show once again When play resumed on day four, the expectation was that Kohli, who was unbeaten on 83 overnight, will get to his 100 and India would declare. Unfortunately, for Kohli and scores of his fans who turned up at his home ground Feroz Shah Kotla, it was not to be. Kyle Abbott’s good length ball scooted after landing on a crack and hit Kohli well below the knee roll. [caption id=“attachment_2404508” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Ajinkya Rahane. File image: AP[/caption] Rahane then decided the spotlight will be his own. On a day when South Africa’s innings run rate was 1.00, Rahane made 48 runs off 48 balls in the first hour to push India’s lead to 480. In the process - and this is crucial because it was only in the process of scoring quick runs that he put himself in a position to make a hundred, not vice versa - Rahane joined an elite club of Indian cricketers. He became the fifth Indian to score a 100 in each innings of the Test match. And when you think those are the only two hundreds made in this series (so far), it puts his achievement in perspective. As we saw in Fatullah earlier this year against Bangladesh, Rahane once again showed he can shift gears in a Test innings with ease. After playing foil to Kohli on day three, Rahane took on the bowlers on a hazy Sunday morning. The three sixes he hit on the day were all shots of supreme quality and anticipation - the upper cut over third man off a Morne Morkel bouncer, a slog-sweep off Imran Tahir after he picked up his googly early, and a lofted on-drive off Dean Elgar, going against the turn. After scores of 1 and 7 in his debut Test at Kotla against Australia, Rahane ended up with 127 and 100* against South Africa this time around. Debut demons were well and truly banished. Hashim Amla’s block-defend-prod tactic has been a treat so far Here’s a man who had four Test hundreds in India to his name before this series started. And it has taken him his seventh innings on the tour to reach 100 runs for the series. [caption id=“attachment_2535246” align=“alignright” width=“380”]  Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers frustrated India. AFP[/caption] Hashim Amla did not light the world on fire at the Kotla on Sunday - but in fact, he did the exact opposite. He doused the Indian camp’s hopes of completing a 3-0 rout on the fourth day with near zen-mode defending. He took 46 balls to score his first run, he took 114 balls to score his first boundary, and he has taken 207 balls for his 23 runs so far. And out of those 203 balls, he looked like getting out on four, maybe five balls, including one tough half-chance off Shikhar Dhawan’s first over. (Yes, Shikhar Dhawan bowled and almost got Amla out). In the lunch break, Shaun Pollock said on air with a resigned look on his face, that the fate of the Test match depends on how the South African batsmen see this target - an opportunity to restore some lost pride or a chance to get done with the nightmare series a day early. Pollock will be happy to know Amla and de Villiers have ensured they are not returning home without a fight. Except Ravichandran Ashwin, the Indian bowlers were not very impressive There are still three sessions to go in this Test match and the fifth day pitch will be, obviously, a day worse for wear than the fourth day pitch for the Indian bowlers to dismiss South Africa. But up against the determined Amla and de Villiers, Indian bowlers did not have enough firepower to cause trouble on a slow pitch. When the batsmen decided to shut up shop and not go for any extravagant shots, Ravindra Jadeja and the fast bowlers did not have enough variations in their arsenal. Ashwin looked threatening through out the day, picking up the only two wickets to have fallen. When he found the going tough, he tried an array of variations to try and trick the batsmen. On a couple of occasions, he started from around the wicket and bowled diagonally over the wicket like a left-armer would. He even bowled conventional leg spinners - one such ball put Amla off and in a way, led to Bavuma’s dismissal off the very next ball as he played inside the line of a regular off-spinner. Jadeja, on the other hand, was made to look as menacing as Puss in Boots when he makes that sad-face. Jadeja’s biggest strength is his accuracy but when the batsmen did not make mistakes, Jadeja could not do enough to induce them. The only variations he could try were changing his point of delivery stride - not enough of a surprise to trouble Amla or de Villiers. Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav bowled with good rhythm, but did not bowl full often enough, as Morkel and Abbott did, to trouble the batsmen with reverse swing. They, perhaps, will have a crucial role to play early on the fifth day under the hazy weather with the second new ball nearly due. But if Amla, de Villiers - with Faf du Plessis and JP Duminy still to follow - pull off this draw on Monday, it would be more a credit to the batsmen than the lack of skills of the bowlers. A test of patience awaits Kohli and his men as the 72-day long tour reaches its end.