Guwahati: Skipper Rishabh Pant failed to survive the vagaries of a typical fifth day track as off-spinner Simon Harmer once again turned into India’s nightmare extracting turn and vicious bounce to put South Africa on the cusp of victory in the second Test and a series clean sweep after 25 years. The target of 549 was never in equation but the manner in which India struggled their way to 90 for 5 at tea signalled that Harmer (4/23 in 19 overs) was more at ease on this track than Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja had been through the two innings.
The Barsapara track was one of the best Indian tracks provided in recent times where batters with proper technique and application were able to score, as the pacers who knew their lengths excelled and spinners with guile ruled the roost.
After eight wickets in Kolkata, Harmer has already picked seven in the current game and looked good for a few more.
Sai Sudharsan (14 batting off 138 balls), who is lucky to have survived three clear cut dismissals, including a plumb leg before off Harmer (on day 4).
He was caught behind but Marco Jansen overstepped for a no-ball and a catch was dropped in the slip, and the left-hander never looked convincing for even once during the two-hour session. He seemed to get out at any point of time.
But good news for India was that he hung around.
In the morning, Harmer breached through Kuldeep Yadav’s (5 off 38 balls) defence after a half-an-hour vigil while Dhruv Jurel (0) got a pair for the first time in Tests.
This time it was Harmer, who bowled a slider that drifted away while the batter jabbed at it to give catching practice to Aiden Markram stationed at first slip.
Rishabh Pant lofted Keshav Maharaj into the stands but he knew that survival was difficult.
It was Harmer, who got one delivery to bounce and even as Pant tried to defend awkwardly was caught after it flew off the shoulder of the bat to Markram.
Ravindra Jadeja (23 batting, 40 balls) joined Sudharsan and hit Maharaj over deep mid-wicket for a six while adding 32 runs for the sixth wicket to delay the inevitable.
PTI
