Ngidi puts India on back foot
NGIDI MAGIC: ROOKIE PACEMAN TRAPS KOHLI IN FRONT AS INDIA STRUGGLE De Villiers, Elgar give South Africa a great platform.
This time there will be no epic century from Virat Kohli to save India.
The Indian captain was one of the three wickets to fall as the tourists stumbled to stumps on 35/3 on the fourth day of the second Test against South Africa at Centurion, chasing 287 for victory.
This would be a record chase for the ground, and in all Tests between these two nations, and India are trying to achieve it on a pitch that has become thoroughly unpredictable.
Kohli, whose glorious 153 in the first innings lifted India to 307 and a deficit of just 28, was trapped lbw for just five by Lungi Ngidi.
The Proteas’ plan for Kohli has been to drag him across his stumps and try and get him lbw, and this worked a treat as Ngidi produced a gem of a delivery that jagged back and kept a touch low as Kohli went too far across and tried to play around his pad.
Ngidi had already picked up the wicket of opener Lokesh Rahul (4) with his first ball of the innings, but this was more due to the batsman gifting a catch to backward point.
Kagiso Rabada set the ball rolling when he bowled Murali Vijay for nine, also jagging a delivery back into the right-hander, and going via the bottom of the bat onto the stumps.
South Africa began the day on 90/2 and could only score at 2.69 runs per over as they were dismissed for 258 at around 4pm.
The reason for this was the pitch, which just became more and more of a pudding, with some scuttling deliveries thrown in for good measure, and bounce and turn for the spinner.
AB de Villiers’ genius allowed him to score 80 off 121 deliveries and Dean Elgar got to 61 in over three hours due to sheer determination.
They extended their stand to 141 before Mohammed Shami (16-3-49-4) removed both, playing strokes that could have been avoided, in the space of three overs.
Quinton de Kock (12) then lost his head and his wicket in five crazy deliveries, three of which he edged through the slips for fours off Shami before being caught behind off another waft, and South Africa were at a precarious 163/6, just 191 ahead.
But captain Faf du Plessis played an innings of great composure – 48 in 222 minutes – to ensure the Proteas pushed their lead nearer to 300 than 250.
The bulk of those extra runs came in a sixth-wicket stand of 46 with Vernon Philander, who made 26.
India will believe that they can scrape together the remaining 252 runs they need to level the series before the Wanderers finale next week, with the presence of the normally level-headed Cheteshwar Pujara (11*) being the main reason for that.