Press Trust of India
Nagpur, Nov 25: Indian batsmen capitulated meekly against both pace and spin on a pitch of variable pace and bounce to be shot out for 215 before hitting back at South Africa with two early scalps on day one of the third and penultimate Test here Wednesday.
The home team, leading 1-0 in the rubber, once again fell back on their spin force to dismiss opener Stiaan van Zyl for a duck and Imran Tahir (4), who came in as a night-watchman, before the visitors ended the day at 11 for two at the Jamtha Stadium.
Earlier, on a pitch that offered plenty of turn to the spinners and reverse swing to fast bowler Morne Morkel, the home team batsmen came a cropper after opting to bat first and were gasping at 125 for 6 before the tail wagged and took the total past the 200-mark.
In-form opener Murali Vijay top scored with an innings of 40 (84b, 3×4, 1×6), while wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha (32, 106b, 4×4) and Ravindra Jadeja (34, 54b, 6×4) revived the tottering innings briefly. Cheteshwar Pujara (21) and skipper Virat Kohli (22) got decent starts only to throw them away.
For South Africa the early damage was done by lanky pacer Morkel (3/25), who bowled in three spells before limping off the field after bowling the first ball of his fourth. His wicket-taking spells, the second and third, read 4-2-8-1 and 4-2-8-2. He was well-supported by off- spinner Simon Harmer (4/78).
There were only two significant partnerships in the Indian innings – 50 between openers Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan and 48 between Saha and Jadeja.
After a fine opening stand, Dhawan, denied strike for long, was lured out by Elgar and spooned a drive back to the left arm slow bowler. South Africa, then, hit back strongly through Morkel in the first hour post lunch.
The batsmen dismissed, mostly to poor shots, were Pujara, Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Rohit Sharma, who did not play in the first two Tests. In the space of 15 overs after lunch India lost four wickets for the addition of only 31 runs after being 95 for two – Morkel and Harmer doing the damage.
Saha and Jadeja then repaired the damage with a stand of 48 in 106 balls. While Saha was more circumspect between the two, Jadeja was not afraid to go for his shots – a shimmy down the wicket to hit Morkel over his head for a boundary – being the shot of the day.
India’s last four wickets added 90 runs to pull them out of a deep hole.
