Pitch turns on cue for India spinners
SA needed 492 deliveries to take India’s first wicket and 189 to claim the next four. Then the Indians went better and ripped out three in 62 balls.
It was that kind of day in Visakhapatnam on Thursday: hours of lean and others of plenty. But the flow of the first Test remained unchanged. At stumps on the second day SA were 39/3 in reply to India’s declaration at 502/7.
With a lead of 463 and Ravichandran Ashwin already on his high horse with 2/9 from eight overs‚ and Ravindra Jadeja not far from that‚ India are firmly in control.
It was the 41st time a team had put 500 past SA‚ but only the third occasion it has happened in their 17 Tests in India and the first time anywhere since England racked up 629/6 at Newlands in January 2016.
Mayank Agarwal’s 215 is his career-best score and second only to Virender Sehwag’s 319 in Chennai in 2008 as the highest innings for India against SA.
Rohit Sharma’s 176 was one run short of his best effort‚ which he made on debut against West Indies in Kolkata in November 2013 — 47 innings ago.
The 317 openers Agarwal and Sharma shared is the biggest stand for any wicket against SA in India‚ and no SA bowler has sent down more overs in an innings there than Keshav Maharaj’s 55. That is 40.44% of the total of 136.
For all that hard work he earned the wickets of Sharma‚ Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari at the cost of 189 runs.
But the real price will be deducted from how much he has left in the tank for the second innings. If India need a second innings‚ that is.
By the look of the bokkies caught in Vizag’s floodlights as the sun sank with undignified haste in the 20 overs the South Africans faced‚ following on is a distinct possibility. And especially now that the pitch is showing signs of rising from its deadness of the past two days.
“It’s probably one of the toughest surfaces I’ve bowled on in terms of it being a lot slower and not biting‚” Maharaj told reporters in Vizag.
“You got slow turn but the ball didn’t really kick off the wicket. When the ball got softer the odd one straightened or there was a little bit of bite‚ but the cracks have been opening because of the heat.
“So there is a little bit of assistance coming through now as opposed to when we started.”
Maharaj’s supporting spinners‚ Dane Piedt and debutant Senuran Muthusamy‚ might not feel the same way having taken a combined 2/170 from 34 overs.
Muthusamy will not complain that‚ for his first wicket at the highest level‚ he produced a ball that turned appreciably‚ made no less than Virat Kohli look clumsy‚ found the leading edge‚ and nestled in the bowler’s happy hands.