TALKING POINTS
Follow UsMohammed Siraj’s ‘leg-side’ ploy to the left-handers in the first hour
After nearly dismissing Dean Elgar caught down leg on the very first ball he bowled, Mohammed Siraj, a few overs later, managed to get a strangle down leg, with Tony de Zorzi tickling one to KL Rahul.
Did Siraj get lucky, or was it actually a conscious plan to attack the LHB's pads, with extra bounce on offer?
It’d be easy to term de Zorzi's dismissal as 'lucky' but there were actually a couple of close calls prior to the dismissal, where the left-hander nearly gloved the ball to the keeper.
It does seem like India, specifically, Siraj, walked in with a plan to attack the thigh pads of the lefties. It worked pretty well in the first hour.
Siraj vs right-handers: unplayable
Unlike vs left-handers, there was no luck involved whatsoever as far as Siraj vs right-handers was concerned today. Four of Siraj's six victims in the first innings today were right-handers and everyone perished identically.
The channel Siraj hit against the righties was impeccable. Especially on this surface, where the bounce was inconsistent. Simply too good.
He kept hammering that channel outside off, the corridor of uncertainty, and duly got rewarded. The beauty of Siraj's showing vs. the right-handers today lay in how he wooed the batters into playing balls they could easily have let go of.
Overall, Siraj induced a mind-boggling 39.4% false shots against the righties in the first innings. Which is basically a false response every 2.5 balls. Ridiculous.
Rohit Sharma’s early assault rattles South Africa
Inside 8 overs, India had brought up their fifty. In the tenth over, they took the first innings lead. All this was possible due to the intent of Rohit Sharma, who walked out like a man on a mission after twin failures in the first Test in Centurion.
Rohit set the tone for India post-lunch. Knowing the best way to score runs was by fighting fire with fire, he walked out with a 'see ball, hit ball' mindset, dispatching anything remotely wide or full.
He was, by far, the most attacking batter on the day and reaped rewards for his intent, racing to 36 off just 26 balls.
The Indian skipper was also helped a lot by South African pacers outside Rabada, who were extremely loose with their lengths, bowling very full.
Nandre Burger’s course-correction helps South Africa bounce back
After an extremely loose start, conceding 25 off his first 3 overs and overpitching a lot, Nandre Burger course-corrected and kept South Africa in the contest by striking thrice.
In the space of 8 overs, he removed all three of Rohit, Gill and Shreyas Iyer.
After conceding 0/25 off his first 3 overs, he registered figures of 3/17 off his next 5.
As is evident from the pitch map below, Burger pulled his length back significantly and hit that sweet spot on leg/middle and leg of the right-hander. The natural angle away (from the rightie) took care of the rest, getting the better of all three of Rohit, Gill and Iyer.
India surrender advantage in a 10-minute window of madness
With the score reading 153/4, with a lead of 98 and with Kohli and Rahul in the middle, India were eyeing batting South Africa out of the game on Day 1. They were eyeing a lead close to 200, and that looked realistic, too, considering Kohli was well set and looking in prime touch.
However, in an extraordinary passage of play, India lost their last 6 wickets for ZERO RUNS!
That’s right, from 153/4, India collapsed to 153 all-out. For the first time in Test history, six wickets fell for zero runs in an innings.
The collapse started with Rahul unnecessarily chasing a wide one. After that, Ngidi struck twice more in the over, removing both Jadeja & Bumrah for ducks. India lost the plot completely after that, just surrendering inexplicably, the comical run-out of Siraj serving as a microcosm of the passage of play.
Metronomic Mukesh shows his worth late on Day 1
Prasidh Krishna got the nod ahead of Mukesh Kumar in the first Test in Centurion, and that didn't go down well, with Prasidh enduring a horror debut. Mukesh made it back into the starting XI today, and while he did not have a lot to do in the first innings, he showed his worth late on Day 1 in the second dig.
Bowling from 'round the wicket to the lefties, Mukesh tested them by relentlessly hitting that Mohammed Shami line & length that has often been the kryptonite for many batters.
He kept pounding that length consistently and eventually got his reward, with both Elgar and Tony de Zorzi nicking behind. Mukesh might not have a lot of weapons in general, but he's made a super impressive start to this international career by having clarity over his plans.
