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South Africa's captain Faf du Plessis middle, leaves the field after being bowled by India's bowler Jasprit Bumrah, for 8 runs on the second day of the third cricket Test match between South Africa and India at the Wanderers. (AP Image)
Five overs later, Jasprit Bumrah shows why he is one of the most spoken about young bowlers in the Indian circuit. Known to be one of the grittiest customers in world cricket at the moment, Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis shoulders arms to one from Jasprit Bumrah that cuts back just enough from the fifth stump to hit top of off. 8 off 19 as the skipper walks back to the pavilion with his head down and the score reading 107/5. These two dismissals sum up proceedings on a day when Bumrah (5/54) and Bhuvneshwar (3/44) brought India back into the game after the hosts had bundled them out for just 187 in the first essay.
At stumps, India’s score read 49 for one – a lead of 42 runs -- with Murali Vijay (13) and KL Rahul (16) at the crease.
The Proteas folded up for 194 – a lead of just 7 runs – leaving the match evenly balanced. While Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar had the wickets to show for their performance, Ishant Sharma deserves special mention for hitting the right areas for 14 overs. The only blacksheep of the unit had to be Mohammed Shami as he finished with figures of 1/46 off 12 overs. Hardik Pandya was hardly bowled, clearly showing a waste of a spot which could well have been utilised by R Ashwin.
Coming out to bat in the second innings, India started with Murali Vijay and Parthiv Patel at the top, an eyebrow raising move considering that regular opener KL Rahul looked fit and there was no injury concern. In fact, there was close to 30 overs of play still left in the day and there was no way that sending in a nightwatchman was an option. Parthiv (16) got out to Philander with the ball taking the inside half of the bat and hitting the inside thigh before flying to Aiden Markram at gully. Rahul joined Vijay after that and played out the rest of the session without giving the Proteas any more chances.
The old adage goes that morning shows the day. But that wasn’t really the case for the Indians on Thursday morning as nightwatchman Kagiso Rabada made the Indians sweat quite a bit after Bhuvneshwar dismissed Dean Elgar for just 4. Rabada combined beautifully with Hashim Amla to take South Africa to the brink of lunch before Ishant got him caught brilliantly by Ajinkya Rahane at third slip. The score read 81/3 at lunch with Amla batting on 32 and de Villiers yet to open his account.
De Villiers started lucky after the break as even after he was caught plumb in front, the Indians did not go for a DRS after the umpire turned down the appeal. Replays showed that was out. But luck deserted him after a while when Bhuvneshwar came back to rock his stumps. Du Plessis too left soon after, leaving Amla and Quinton de Kock to do the hard grind. But Quinton’s rough patch with the bat continued as Bumrah got an inside edge off the keeper that went into the gloves of Parthiv.
With the score reading a precarious 125/6, Vernon Philander joined Amla and the two looked pretty composed in the middle as Shami disappointed with his failure to back the other three pacers who looked to have the Proteas looking for answers. The partnership finally ended when Amla (61) hit what was probably Bumrah’s worst ball in the match to Pandya at deep square-leg. It was a half volley on the leg stump.
Philander (35) joined him in the hut six runs later as a bouncer from Shami took the top edge of the bat and Bumrah picked up a smart running catch at fine-leg. Andile Phehlukwayo (9) and Morne Morkel (9*) did take the hosts past India’s first innings score, but they could manage only 7 more as Bumrah cleaned up the tail.
India vs South Africa, 3rd Test Day 2 in Johannesburg, Highlights: As It Happened
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First Published: January 26, 2018, 8:50 AM IST