AB will have to outshine Virat for SA to take control
AB DE VILLIERS utilised every iota of skill and applied all of his will to wrench back control of the second Test following an innings of staggering quality by Virat Kohli.
The Indian captain still very much believes his team can win the Test, but he will feel that like his own, De Villiers’ wicket is key to unlocking the door to victory. And the way that De Villiers is playing in South Africa’s second innings, suggests Kohli is right.
De Villiers and Kohli may be very close friends – “my brother from another mother,” Kohli once said – but De Villiers – an uber competitor, although not as demonstrative in his displays of that competitiveness as Kohli – wants to win the match, and that means he can’t allow Kohli’s magnificent 151 to be the defining performance at Centurion.
No doubt still buoyed by his skipper’s sterling effort, Jasprit Bumrah charged in from the Hennops River End and removed both Aiden Markram and Hashim Amla – the top two scorers in SA’s first innings – inside six overs to leave the hosts at 3/2.
De Villiers strode to the crease, having borne close witness to one of the finest innings played in SA and one he will certainly have been able to appreciate – and not just because of the close bond he shares with the Indian captain.
But De Villiers would also have realised the importance of his own wicket, given the situation – SA leading by just 31 runs at the time he arrived at the crease – and he would have wanted to put his own stamp on proceedings.
De Villiers’ natural way is to attack, but he needed to show care. Ravichandran Ashwin was getting the ball to spin – although it must be added, the job for the right hander is much easier than is the case for the left-hander against the off-spinner – Bumrah, who has troubled De Villiers throughout the series, was moving the ball alarmingly off the surface, while Mohammed Shami found some reverse swing.
In those many months De Villiers has spent away from Test cricket, this was the kind of scenario he would have been preparing for. He admitted, shortly after confirming his return to the sport’s premier format, that the time away had given him an opportunity to refine parts of his technique and even learn some new tricks.
De Villiers utilised all of his prodigious talent, to not only keep India at bay, but dig his team out of a hole. His innings has not been without good fortune – probably more than Kohli had throughout his magical 379-minute effort – but De Villiers utilised that good fortune well. ALSO INSIDE New job for Giggs, P22 Ashwell and Klopp, P22 Extra Strong soccer, P23
He squeezed out a yorker from Bumrah first ball for four, only just missed getting an edge trying pull the same bowler a short while later, and even as he closed in on his half-century, the outside edge of his bat was beaten twice by Bumrah.
There were six fours, including a couple of classic straight drives and a square cut off Ashwin that saw the ball scream to the boundary. It’s been a stunning display for 98 minutes. It needs to last a lot longer for the Proteas to properly gain the ascendancy.
In support De Villiers has Dean Elgar, less fluent, but ferociously gritty, who as his innings stretched on, found the middle of the bat more often. Elgar has never been about the aesthetics, it’s more about effectiveness and 36 not out in 118 minutes has hitherto been mighty effective.
The match right now rests on two of the great batsmen of the modern era. One has already produced an innings for the ages, the other is trying to match him. If he does – he condemns the Indian captain’s innings to a footnote in the context of the second Test – and even though it’s a close friend of his, De Villiers will love that.