PRETORIA: At some point when India look back at how another overseas tour went off the rails, along with totting up their own mistakes, Virat Kohli and the team management will also acknowledge the genius of AB de Villiers. His 65 and 35 were pivotal in a low-scoring Test in Cape Town, and the 80 he made with the game in the balance at Centurion put South Africa on the verge of a Test and series victory. Set a daunting 287 to win on a pitch exhibiting increasingly variable bounce, India limped to 35 for 3 by stumps.
The third of those wickets was the sucker punch, delivered by Lungi Ngidi, who has had a dream debut. Kohli, whose first innings 153 kept India in the contest, had no answer to one that nipped back with the angle and thudded into his pads. That India wasted a review on the decision said much about the value of his wicket, and the appalling efforts of his top-order colleagues. “Lungi Ngidi, you beauty” flashed the electronic scoreboard.
“It’s massive for us and I think it’s massive for India, knowing he is not batting,” said Elgar of the Kohli dismissal. “He’s a very special batsman as we saw in the first innings and we knew it was a massive moment to get him out. But we all knew it was possible because he is human and he can also fail. I am sitting here with a smile on my face knowing there is one less very competitive, very talented guy that we don’t have to deal with.”
Murali Vijay was blameless as one from Kagiso Rabada shot through at shin height and cannoned into the stumps off the inside edge. Not so KL Rahul, who slapped Ngidi’s first ball, short and wide, straight to Keshav Maharaj at backward point. And to add to the sense of farce, Kohli’s dismissal saw Parthiv Patel, the wicketkeeper, stride to the middle, in place of Rohit Sharma, whose selection at No.5 has been such a hot potato back home.
After an opening hour in which de Villiers and Elgar made largely serene progress, the game was transformed by the introduction of Mohammed Shami. A ball that rose steeply saw de Villiers edge behind, but by then he and Elgar had added a potentially series-winning 141 for the third wicket. De Villiers’ contribution was a magnificent 121-ball 80.
Elgar (61) followed soon after, pulling Shami to long leg, and when Quinton de Kock played roulette with the edge of his bat, South Africa were 163 for 5, a lead of just 191. By then, India had added to their collection of dropped catches as well. Faf du Plessis, who would go on to make 48, had just 6 when he tried to glance the luckless Ravichandran Ashwin off his pads. Rahul dived to his right at leg slip, but couldn’t hold on.
Du Plessis and Vernon Philander then ground out 46 in 26 overs, exponentially increasing India’s frustration levels. Philander saw off 85 balls for 26 before slugging Ishant Sharma to midwicket. Ishant had Maharaj caught behind soon after, but Rabada again put up stubborn resistance. The last three wickets added just 13, but the true value of the de Villiers exhibition and du Plessis’s 141-ball vigil became apparent as India collapsed in a heap before stumps.
“We didn’t expect that the ball would stay so low,” said Shami after play. “Till now, in overseas conditions, we haven’t seen such slow and low wickets. I don’t know what they were thinking when they made this wicket. But whatever it is, we have to play on it and tomorrow we will try to win.”
CLASSY IN THE CAPE OR SORRY IN SOUTH AFRICA
Arab News look at who had a good day and who had a day to forget on day four of the Centurion Test...
CLASSY IN THE CAPE: Mohammed Shami
He was thrown the ball only midway through the morning session, and both AB de Villiers and Dean Elgar took fours off an erratic first over. But he was on the money in his second, with steep bounce surprising De Villiers, who could only edge behind. Elgar followed not long after, pulling the ball straight to the man in the deep. When Quinton de Kock then edged one too many to give him a third, India were right back in the game. And it was Shami that Virat Kohli turned to when Kagiso Rabada was giving Faf du Plessis stout support. He came round the wicket and had Rabada nicking off to second slip to give him figures of four for 49.
SORRY IN SOUTH AFRICA: Quinton de Kock
You’ll have to go quite a distance to see a more bizarre innings. Out first ball in the first innings, De Kock was all edge in the second. One flew past the slip cordon, the next just evaded the keeper’s dive, and the third flashed past second slip. There was no fourth time lucky though, as Parthuv Patel held on to another edge behind. Reckless? Irresponsible? You could have found any number of labels. Luckily for South Africa, Vernon Philander ensured there would be no collapse, with a gritty 85-ball 26.
