‘We tried to not enter a shell’
PUNE: South African tail-ender Keshav Maharaj, who braved a sore shoulder to hit a gritty 72, said not going into a shell was key to their splendid rearguard action in the second Test against India. Maharaj said his lower-order colleague Vernon Philander (44 not out) kept him in good frame of mind. They shared a 109run ninth wicket stand as South Africa made 275 in reply to Idnia’s 601/5 declared.
“Vernon and I said to ourselves that we’ll just get through to tea and see after that. Being a lower order batsman your fingers do itch to play a big shot but Vernon kept me in a good mind space,” Maharaj said after the third day’s play.
“But I remained be positive, because if you go into your shell a ball with your name will come along sooner or later.”
India are now 326 runs ahead and have to option of enforcing a follow-on on the visitors.
Maharaj talked about the planning he had done with the support staff on how to bat against the Indian bowlers.
“I sat with Prasanna (analyst) last night and look at the gameplan for me going forward. I wanted to stay outside off stump to spin, I tried to stay legside of the ball for Jadeja. We saw Shami got the ball to reverse, and the wicket is deteriorating, but the longer you bat the easier it is.”
Asked about his shoulder, he said, “It (shoulder) is very sore. Yesterday I dived on it so lot of bruising. But hopefully I’ll be fine for the rest of the series. After a few pulls I felt normal.”
GAVASKAR ANGRY
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar was left fuming after a fan on Saturday broke the security cordon and entered the playing field during India’s ongoing second Test against South Africa at the Maharashtra Cricket Stadium here.
A fan dodged the stadium security and came close to Rohit Sharma, who was standing at the slips on the third day of the match. He touched Rohit’s feet before the security staff intervened and escorted him out of the ground. The incident infuriated Gavaskar, who c al l e d f or accountability from ground security staff.
“These incidents happen because security people are not watching the crowd but are watching the match. This has been the perennial problem in India,” said Gavaskar, who is a part of commentary panel.
“The security is not there to watch the match for free. They are there to stop such interruptions from happening.”
Gavaskar said such incidents are major security risks for players. “I say put the camera on the security and check whether they are watching the match or the crowd. This is a dangerous security issue which is what you are there for, to make sure no one goes into the ground. Anyone can cause damage to a player. It has happened in the past, why take a chance,” he said.