INDIA WILL ORDER ANOTHER SPINNER FOR BANGALORE

A fit JP is Proteas hope

IF SA could make time stand still they would take themselves off to the nets and bat until the practice pitches play like the prematurely aged surface they are likely to encounter on Saturday.

The Proteas take on India in the second Test in Bangalore.

But there is no making time stand still anywhere, never mind in a country that never sleeps. But today will be as close as India gets to a standstill.

Happy Diwali everyone – and especially to a SA team who jetted in to Bangalore yesterday eager for reasons to be cheerful in the wake of their loss inside three days in Mohali.

Not that SA are sitting on their hands waiting for their lot to improve. What do you do if you can ’ t stop time? You speed it up.

So, at SA ’ s last training session in Mohali on Monday, a patch of pitch in the nets was purposefully roughened and the frontline batsmen took their chances against throw downs that zigged and zagged this way and that.

South Africans will be heartened to hear that JP Duminy, one of SA ’ s better players of spin and a decent spinner himself, had an extended session.

Duminy missed the Mohali mauling because of a hand injury, and his return in Bangalore could be crucial to the cause.

Hashim Amla also spent a long time in the nets. His 43 in the first innings in Mohali is his highest score in 10 trips to the crease on this tour, but he was bowled without offering a stroke for nought in the second dig.

Less encouragingly, Dale Steyn, who did not bowl in the second innings because of a groin strain, was a spectator for most of the session.

Indeed, for all the fuss made about SA ’ s struggles against spin, India were marginally more convincing when facing Imran Tahir, Simon Harmer and Dean Elgar.

So, India will order another turner for Bangalore and send their batsmen to the nets to sort themselves out.