What Markram can learn from Elgar

“You get to know yourself when you come to the smaller places, where the hotels are maybe not as good and you get challenged by the food you eat.” – Dean Elgar on touring the sub-continent.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

CLEARLY, Dean Elgar and Aiden Markram aren’t saying much to each other besides, “Yes!”, “No!”, “Wait!” and, considering how South Africa’s men’s Test series in India has unfolded, “Eish … Sorry …”

As openers, Elgar and Markram are at the sharp end of the batting problems that have beset the visitors in a rubber India have won with a game to spare.

Only once in four innings have they made it into double figures together, and even then not by much — the first wicket fell at 14 in the eighth over in the first innings in Visakhapatnam.

It’s been steadily downhill from there: four runs in 3.3 overs before the Indians struck in the second dig in Vizag, two in 1.2 overs in the first innings in Pune, then nought in two balls.

And, three times out of four, the first to go has been Markram.

Ravichandran Ashwin trapped him in front for five in Vizag, but he seemed to have found a way to survive — though not prosper — in a second innings in which it needed a fine return catch by Ravindra Jadeja to remove him; sixth out for 39 off 74 balls.

Only for Markram to suffer a pair, both second-ballers, in Pune.

Something had to give. Turns out that something was Markram’s wrist.

A Cricket South Africa release on Thursday said he had been ruled out of the third Test in Ranchi on Saturday “after sustaining an injury … following the opener’s dismissal in the second innings of the match” in Pune.

“In a moment of frustration with his own performance he lashed out at a solid object.”

In english, Markram punched a wall and broke his wrist.

“It’s sad to be going home on this note and I completely understand what I’ve done wrong and take full accountability for it,” the release quoted Markram as saying.

“It’s unacceptable in a Proteas environment and to let the team down is what hurts me the most.

“I’ve learned a lot from this and the other players, I’m sure, have learned from it as well. We understand in sport that emotions run high and sometimes the frustration gets the better of you as it did for me.

“But, like I said, it’s no excuse. I’ve taken full responsibility for it, I have apologised to the team, and hopefully I can make it up to them and the people of South Africa soon.”

Eish. Sorry.

At 32 Elgar is, in the nicest possible way, the grumpy old man of South Africa’s squad.

Faf du Plessis and Vernon Philander are older, but no-one can match him for moaning.

Thing is, there’s wisdom in his whining.

Here’s what he had to say during South Africa’s training session in Ranchi on Thursday on what touring Asia can do to players: “You get stretched as a cricketer, you get stretched as a person.

“You get to know yourself quite a lot when you come to the smaller places, where the hotels are maybe not as good and you get challenged by the food you eat potentially.”

In other words, Elgar didn’t quite say, you might have more chance of having your brain scrambled than successfully ordering your eggs that way.

Not that he was about to go sunnyside up: “[India are] very streetwise and clever with the touring teams. They definitely push your boundaries and they test you.”

Markram has failed that test this time.

He has scored four centuries and six half-centuries in 35 innings, but only eight of those trips to the crease have been in Asia — where he averages 10.50, has a highest score of 39 and faces, on average, 24.5 balls per innings.

Elgar has had 100 innings, 22 of them in Asia. He averages 29.95 there and 42.24 everywhere else. Only two of his dozen centuries have been scored in the sub-continent, one of them the 160 he made in Vizag.

But he has been there, done that and got the experience in ways that Markram — seven years and 65 innings his junior — has not.

Markram could do worse than stay in touch with Elgar, especially while he is in rehab and away from his teammates.

His skill and talent suggests he will reach Elgar’s level of belonging, although fulfilling his potential will not come easily precisely because he has a lot of potential to fulfill and he is, currently, a long way off the mark.

But, even though it’s never a sensible idea to break bones, it’s good to know how much he cares.

First published by TMG Digital.

SA ponder batting problems

Temba Bavuma has scored more runs than Aiden Markram and Theunis de Bruyn, but fewer than Senuran Muthusamy and Vernon Philander.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

IT takes 32 hours to drive the 1 582 kilometres across India from Pune, near the west coast, to Ranchi in the north-east.

South Africa’s men’s Test squad have made that journey, happily for them by air.

But it probably felt just as long as if they had endured every bump and pothole on the road.

Pune was where India clinched the series on Sunday with their biggest every victory over South Africa — by an innings and 137 runs, and with a day to spare.

That followed the home side’ 203-run win in Visakhapatnam, where the tone was set.

In both matches India have showcased their strengths in all departments and South Africa have struggled to perform like a reasonable facsimile of the tough, proud team they used to be.

And so to Ranchi, where all that will matter are the 40 points up for grabs in the World Test Championship (WTC) standings.

Not that the WTC means anything yet. The International Cricket Council’s attempt to make Tests more relevant by moving them out of T20’s shadow is, right now, a shapeless invertebrate of a thing.

Two years from now, when the final is played and the champions are crowned, it might be significant. But not now.

Even so, the WTC has kept on life support what would have been a dead rubber in Ranchi.

Whether that will stop South Africa from doing the obvious — include Zubayr Hamza and Heinrich Klaasen at the expense of Aiden Markram and Theunis de Bruyn, and work out the batting order from there — is keenly anticipated.

The pitches in Vizag and Pune offered no excuses for South Africa having ventured past 200 only twice, especially as the Indians have yet to be dismissed and while soaring to 500 and 600.

That the South Africans are applying their minds to their batting problems was apparent in the second innings in Pune, when Faf du Plessis moved up one place in the order to No. 4.

“I felt it was important for me to step up,” Du Plessis said of his promotion.

“Every innings we’ve been in a position where we are 30 or 40 or 50/3.

“It was trying to find us a better start; taking responsibility in making sure I step up to the plate.

“For now, that is something that needs to be considered — for me to bat there until we feel there is growth, and games behind batsmen’s names so that the experience can come back.”

Temba Bavuma, who had been South Africa’s No. 4 in his previous seven innings, averages 49.15 in that position — better than Du Plessis’ 41.41 in the same spot.

But Bavuma has yet to score a half-century batting at No. 4 while Du Plessis has made a century and a 50 in his nine innings there.

More pertinently, Bavuma, though he has brought the same discipline and application to his performances in India as he does to all his work on the field, has scraped together 64 runs in the series.

That’s more than Markram and De Bruyn but fewer than Senuran Muthusamy and Vernon Philander.

Of the players who have appeared in both games only Markram and Kagiso Rabada have faced fewer deliveries than Bavuma.

South Africa need him in Ranchi, but he needs to take the next step towards fulfilling his potential.     

“As a batter, when you are struggling, it is a difficult place to get out of,” Du Plessis said.

“Perhaps it is a good opportunity to get some fresh heads into the team from a mental point of view.

“Maybe the best thing is for a player to take a breather and for someone else to come in with a fresh mind and take on the challenge in a one-off Test.”

Maybe we will see Hamza and Klaasen in action in Ranchi.

First published by TMG Digital.

Reality rocks Rabada

“Sorry?” – Kagiso Rabada on being told India’s seamers are showing up South Africa’s.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

YOU know things have changed when even the team media officer asks the tough questions, as Kagiso Rabada discovered on Tuesday.

Maybe Rabada didn’t hear the query clearly; there was a significant amount of background noise during his one-on-one interview.

Or maybe the question, utterly legitimate though it was, stung.

“A lot has been said about India’s seam attack making the pitch look a lot easier [to bowl on] than South Africa’s. How did you experience that pitch?”

Rabada seemed to take a verbal step backward before replying: “Sorry?”

The question was repeated, and Rabada found an answer: “[India] got the ball to reverse and they bowled well as a collective.

“Their whole attack put pressure on us in every single aspect.

“Their spinners bowled well and when the ball was reversing their seamers could exploit that.

“We didn’t really get the ball to reverse and that’s a major weapon of ours.”

The pitch at issue was at Pune, where India won the second men’s Test by an innings and 137 runs with a day to spare on Sunday — their biggest ever success over South Africa. 

That followed the home side winning the first Test, in Visakhapatnam, by 203 runs.

Both surfaces offered a fair deal to seamers, spinners and indeed batters.

But India’s Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav have taken 14 wickets in the series and Rabada and Vernon Philander only six, a difference not solely explained by the fact that the Indians have had one more innings in the field.

As expected, slow poisoners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been the most lethal bowlers on view — they’ve claimed 24 of the 40 wickets India have taken — but a key difference between the teams has been India’s seam superiority.

South Africa have yet to bowl out India in an innings. In three attempts they’ve taken only 16 wickets.

“It’s never nice to lose, especially in the manner we’re losing right now,” Rabada said.

“We’re going through a transition period. Our team is fresh and young, so the best thing we can do is look at where we can improve and remember our strengths and build on them.

“We need to challenge ourselves to execute what we have learnt.

“We’ve been put under immense pressure. I don’t know if we can be put more pressure than that. That can hopefully produce something special in years to come.”

India have been in the field for 40 deliveries more than South Africa, but it seemed pertinent to ask whether the challenge in the third Test in Ranchi, which starts on Saturday, would be more mental or physical.

“From a physical point of view we need to execute our skills and from a mental point of view we need to believe we can do it in certain situations. It’s a balance we’re working on.”

The suits might accuse the media officer of committing the offence of journalism, and it’s difficult for the South Africans to arrive at useful answers while they are being dealt their hiding.

But, for now, they need to make sure they ask themselves the right questions.

First published by TMG Digital.

Du Plessis laments inexperience

“You don’t mind losing to a team better than you but in this Test we didn’t even come close to where we needed to be to compete; we let ourselves down.” – Faf du Plessis

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

THE light that left Faf du Plessis’ eyes during the men’s World Cup this year receded further still as he picked over the bones of South Africa’s dismal performance in their Test series in India.

The home side won the second match of the rubber by an innings and 137 runs, their biggest ever victory over South Africa, on the fourth day in Pune on Sunday.

With that they clinched the series ahead of the third Test in Ranchi, which starts on Saturday.

India dominated in all departments even more emphatically than they did to win the first Test in Visakhapatnam by 203 runs last Saturday.

Sunday’s success was their 11th consecutive success in a home rubber, a world record.

“You don’t mind losing to a team better than you but in this Test we didn’t even come close to where we needed to be to compete; we let ourselves down,” captain Du Plessis, who also presided over South Africa’s five losses in eight completed games at the World Cup in England, told reporters.

“There’s still fight from the guys, hanging in there and trying to compete, but there’s a lot of questions that need answers and players need to put their hands up.”

Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock scored South Africa’s only centuries of the series in the first innings in Vizag, and just two of their four half-centuries have been made by a frontline batter — both by Du Plessis himself.

Virat Kohli and Mayank Agarwal scored double centuries for India, who also banked three tons and four 50s.  

Ravichandran Ashwin’s haul of 14 wickets is more than double the six claimed by South Africa’s leading bowler, Keshav Maharaj, who is out of the third Test with a shoulder injury.

“With a very young team and a lot of new faces, consistency would be one of the things we would try and work towards,” Du Plessis said. “Experience and consistency go hand in hand.

“We took one step forward in the first Test but took two back through not being consistent.”

South Africa’s XI in Pune have 357 caps between them, or 217 fewer than the side put out by  India, the world’s top-ranked team.

“Your best Test teams are those with the most experience and guys that have been through it,” Du Plessis said.

“This Indian team is experienced. We have lost most of our experience. You don’t replace those guys overnight.”

South Africa’s entire side in Pune have 60 fewer caps than those won by Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn and Morné Morkel, who have all retired since the team’s last Test series in India, in November 2015.

But Du Plessis declined to blame that factor for the way events have unfolded.

“Even with a lot of inexperience in our team we never came here thinking we were going to roll over and die.

“We are a very proud cricketing nation and our performance in this Test doesn’t do that justice. I am hurting and I am sure the guys are, too.

“It’s about trying to make sure this team can get better, even if you do a few things wrong.

“Even in real tough times, makes sure you try and find learning where the player can get better, otherwise we are not moving forward as a group.

“Hopefully in a few years’ time we can come here and young players who have gone through bad experiences have got stronger.”

It’s a hopeful thought but history suggests otherwise.

Despite bristling with generational giants in India four years ago South Africa still lost 3-0.

First published by TMG Digital.

It’s bad. Could it get worse?

India’s 13th win over South Africa was also their biggest against them, and only the second time they have beaten them by an innings in their 38 Tests.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

HOW bad is it? Bad, but not worse than it’s been in the recent past — twice.

South Africa’s thrashing, by an innings and 137 runs, by India in the second men’s Test in Pune on Sunday confirmed their third defeat in four series.

Having been told to follow on 326 runs behind, South Africa were dismissed for 189 in the seventh over after tea on the fourth day.

The best of their resistance was Dean Elgar’s 48, Temba Bavuma’s 38, Vernon Philander’s 37 and Keshav Maharaj’s 22. No-one else reached double figures.

It’s the last time Maharaj will pick up a bat or ball for up to three weeks.

The shoulder injury he sustained while diving in the field on Friday has ruled him out for the third Test in Ranchi, which starts on Saturday.

Maharaj’s stoicism has been one of the few less negative aspects — it’s difficult to find positives — of South Africa’s performance in this series.

He is their highest wicket-taker with a half-dozen scalps, although they were taken at an average of 85.66, and the 127 overs he bowled is almost twice as many as anyone else in the visitors’ attack.

Maharaj faced 229 balls and his 72 in the first innings in Pune was his first Test half-century.

He will be replaced in the squad by George Linde, the uncapped left-arm spinner who took match figures of 11/131 for the Cobras against the Lions in Potchefstroom in the opening round of franchise first-class fixtures last week.

Umesh Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja led India’s surge to victory with three wickets each.

The Indians caught superbly and ill-considered strokes by the South Africans did the rest. 

Worryingly, the batters were as likely to commit serious errors facing India’s fast bowlers as they were against their old bogeymen, the spinners.  

Elgar’s sliced hoik to long-off off Ravichandran Ashwin and Theunis de Bruyn clumsy fiddle down the leg side to Yadav were the prime examples.  

And that on a pitch that, while recognisably Indian, was far from unrecognisable for the South Africans. 

India’s 13th win over South Africa was also their biggest against them, and only the second time they have beaten them by an innings in their 38 Tests.

It sealed a run of 11 successful home series, a world record. Seven of them have been achieved under Virat Kohli’s masterful captaincy.

India have lost only one of the 32 Tests they have played at home since being beaten twice by England in November and December 2012.

For Faf du Plessis, his team and their supporters, this — South Africa’s 21st series loss in the 88 rubbers they have played since re-admission — will feel like rock bottom.

But it’s happened before.

Between August 2004 and March 2005, South Africa lost in Sri Lanka and India and returned home to go down to England before recovering with victory over Zimbabwe in another home series.

Then, from December 2005 to July 2006, they lost to Australia, home and away, beat New Zealand at home and then went down in Sri Lanka.

Depending on whether your glass if half-full or half-empty, that means the straits are not unprecedentedly dire — or that they will get worse when England arrive in December for a series of four Tests.

First published by TMG Digital.

Plenty of pain, no progress for SA

“I’m giving my best but at this point my best is probably not good enough.” – Temba Bavuma

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

VERNON Philander sought the cold solace of the ice pack, Keshav Maharaj winced at the whim of short, sharp shocks of pain, and both endured for their longest test innings.

But their bravery on Saturday wasn’t enough to shake South Africa’s gaze from the sharp end of both barrels of India’s shotgun.

The third day of the second men’s test in Pune ended with the visitors dismissed for 275 in reply to India’s declaration of 601/5. The South Africans are thus under a mountain that looms 326 runs high.

Even so, their compatriots are likely to have seen the Indians batting again on Sunday morning. *

Virat Kohli’s team needed 105.4 overs to dismiss South Africa, all but 15 of them bowled on Saturday, and they will be wary of having to negotiate even a nominal fourth innings on a pitch that has turned conclusively towards spin.

South Africa were nowhere near making India bat again going into the fourth day, but it was thanks to Philander and Maharaj that they weren’t significantly further away.

Their partnership began at 162/8 and endured for 109 runs and 259 deliveries, and is a record for South Africa’s ninth wicket against India.

Philander faced 192 balls for his unbeaten 44. Maharaj scored 72, his first test half-century, off 132.

The medics were busy for the almost four hours they were together. Philander needed treatment to his left elbow and forearm long after being hit by a short delivery. Maharaj, his right shoulder strapped in the wake of a crash to earth in the field on Friday that saw him taken to hospital for scans, popped painkillers.

“Sometimes, when he doesn’t have a good day, he skips supper,” Hashim Amla said in SuperSport’s studio to measure Maharaj’s mettle.

His and Philander’s efforts earned respect, not least from a dressingroom strewn with frontline batters who had been there and not done that.

One of them, Temba Bavuma, told reporters: “[For] the top order batters, the guys who are entrusted with scoring the bulk of the runs, it does hurt and dent your ego when you see the lower order go and fight it out and do what you are paid to do.

“I don’t have the answers as to where it’s going wrong, other than the obvious one of we haven’t been able to put up partnerships.

“We haven’t been able to absorb the pressure the Indian bowlers have put on us consistently.”

South Africa’s slump to 36/3 at stumps on Friday, which followed a second innings of 191 in the first test in Visakhapatnam, where India won by 203 runs, took the smile off the face of interim team director Enoch Nkwe.

“He was really critical of our effort,” Bavuma said. “He said we’ve got to find a way. We haven’t come to India to lose or just to learn. We’ve come to India to compete.”

So far, not so good. And the performance of Bavuma, who has gone nine innings without reaching 50 but has kept his place as South Africa’s No. 4, is central to the issue.

“I can understand all the criticism and all the flak that is coming my way,” he said. “As a batter your currency is runs; that’s what you’re judged on.

“When your performances are not what we’re so accustomed to with South African batters people are going to come hard.

“It’s not as if I’m going out there and trying to nick balls, trying to miss straight ones.

“I’m giving my best but at this point my best is probably not good enough.”

And Bavuma is not alone. Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock scored centuries in the first innings in Vizag, but the top seven’s only contribution of 50 or more since then was Faf du Plessis’ flinty 64 on Saturday. That’s a long way from good enough.

Consequently another defeat looms, and with it series honours for India.

“No matter which way the result goes let’s make sure our pride is intact,” Bavuma said.

There is, of course, no gaurantee of that. Test cricket takes no prisoners.

• India did enforce the follow-on.

First published by the Sunday Times.

King Kohli leads India’s dominance

“It’s like a Ferrari 4×4 – it’s fast when it needs to be fast, it’s easy on the eye when you look at it, and when you sit inside it you see the quality.” – Hashim Amla on Virat Kohli’s 254 not out.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

KESHAV Maharaj wouldn’t have known whether to laugh or cry in Pune on Friday, even though he might have been too tired and sore to do either.

On the same day he reached 100 Test wickets in the second-fewest number of matches for a South Africa spinner, Maharaj also banked his team’s all-time third-worst innings figures, a dispiriting 1/196.

He also dropped a tough return catch offered by Virat Kohli when he was three not out on his way to an undefeated 254.

Then, when he was five overs away from breaking his own South Africa record for bowling the most overs in an innings — 55, set a week ago — Maharaj jarred a shoulder in the field and was taken off to hospital for a precautionary scan.

The small mercy was that meant he didn’t have to endure the last few jerks of an India innings that reached 601/5 before Kohli declared.

Neither did he have to watch South Africa stumble to 36/3 in reply at stumps on day two of the second men’s Test.

But did Maharaj feel any better than Senuran Muthusamy, who thought he had had Kohli superbly caught by Faf du Plessis diving forward from first slip — only to be denied by his no-ball?

Three overs later Muthusamy again found Kohli’s edge, but this time the catch eluded Du Plessis.

And a good thing, too: Muthusamy had overstepped once more.

Diabolically for a spinner, he sent down five no-balls in the innings.

Not that Muthusamy was the only bowler to blame for India’s dominance.

“We’ve got ourselves to blame,” Enoch Nkwe told reporters in Pune.

“This morning conditions were conducive to seam bowling and we didn’t hit our straps. We bowled too wide and we didn’t test the batters enough.

“We let ourselves down.”

That’s never good, and far less so when a player as ambitious as Kohli is as determined to own the game like he was on Friday.

He shared 178 with Ajinka Rahane and 225 with Ravindra Jadeja, joined Garfield Sobers and Kumar Sangakkara in reaching 7 000 career runs in 138 innings — only Wally Hammond, Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar have got there in fewer trips to the crease — and scored his seventh double century, the most by an India player.

Above and beyond all that, Kohli put the South Africans through the grinder like no-one else could.

He made them look ordinary, as if they wished they were anywhere but on the same field as him watching him reap runs with what what looked like ease and finding themselves helpless to stop the flow.

Or, as Hashim Amla put it in SuperSport’s studio when asked to put Kohli’s innings in context: “It’s like a Ferrari 4×4 — it’s fast when it needs to be fast, it’s easy on the eye when you look at it, and when you sit inside it you see the quality.”

After Kohli reached 200 he and Jadeja batted on for 12.5 overs and hammered 118 runs.

Only Jadeja heaving Muthusamy down long-off’s throat when he was nine short of a century stopped the bleeding by triggering the declaration.

But the day’s troubles were still not done. First Aiden Markram was trapped in front, then Temba Bavuma was caught behind, and then Dean Elgar played on.

The latter, up there with the hardest bastards in the game, stood at the crease for a long and tortured moment afterwards; hand on hip and head cast to the sky in annoyance.

At least, that’s what it looked like. What was he really thinking?

Who can say, but probably not that South Africa teetered similarly after two days of the first Test in Visakhapatnam.

Then, they were 39/3 — and still batting at stumps the next day on their way to a total of 431. Thing is, Elgar was not out after two days in Vizag and en route to a gritty 160.

With him gone South Africans will have no difficulty knowing whether to laugh or cry.

First published by TMG Digital.

Rabada’s back, but India batters won’t go away

“I look for the special spells when the circumstances are tough, and he bowled very well.” – Vincent Barnes on Kagiso Rabada’s improvement.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

KAGISO Rabada bowled, Cheteshwar Pujara edged, and Faf du Plessis took the catch low and to his left at first slip.

It was a common enough occurrence: 124 of Rabada’s 180 Test wickets have been earned by catches, most of them in the arc behind the wicket, 14 by Du Plessis.

But, as South Africa’s captain lay on the turf in Pune on Thursday, he stared at the ball in his hands as he as if he had never seen it.

First he screamed at the thing in celebration. Or was it relief?

Then he smiled at it blithely, as if it was an old friend too many times removed but now happily returned.

Then he stared at it some more, and seemed reluctant to hand it over so the game could continue. 

Perhaps Du Plessis had forgotten what the ball looked like.

Almost four hours passed between Rabada producing an away swinger that found the edge of Rohit Sharma’s bat and was caught by Quinton de Kock, and Pujara’s wicket.

Another hour drained away before Rabada extracted a touch of extra bounce to surprise Mayank Agarwal, whose rocketing edge might have gone clean through Du Plessis’ wishbone had he not taken the catch.

Near on five hours of hard work for three wickets is no-one’s idea of an easy time, but that was as good as it got for South Africa on the first day of the second men’s Test — which ended 4.5 overs early because of bad light with India having reached 273/3.

Maybe Du Plessis was still wondering why his luck seems to have deserted him at the toss on foreign fields.

The coin has come down the wrong way for him in his last six away Tests in charge, and for all seven games — across the formats — he has led his team in Asia.

That must be part of the reason for the more alarming statistic that South Africa have lost 10 of the 19 away Tests they have played in the past four years.

In the four years before that they played 21 on the road and won 10; a clear illustration of their reversal of fortunes in all senses.  

On Thursday, as India did in the first Test in Visakhapatnam, they made Virat Kohli’s continued success at the toss count.

At least, they did after Sharma’s removal in the first hour, when the ball did plenty on a decent pitch.

“If you looked at the conditions this morning, the window was a lot longer for fast bowlers than in Vizag,” bowling coach Vincent Barnes told reporters in Pune. “With a bit more luck we could have had a few more wickets.”

As the day wore on the ball went to sleep on a surface that might as well have been covered by a fluffy duvet, and that helped Agarwal and Pujara take their partnership to 138.

Rabada was easily South Africa’s most threatening bowler on his best day in action for more than a year — he has gone 20 Test innings without taking five wickets — and took 3/48 in 18.1 overs.

“I look for the special spells when the circumstances are tough, and he bowled very well,” Barnes said. “There were a lot of signs that he’s getting to the top.”

So why Du Plessis waited 23 overs before bringing Rabada back after lunch wasn’t completely answered by the fact that he had bowled spells of six and four overs in the morning session.

Ten overs after Pujara went Agarwal was on his way, but with another century to his record.

He followed his 215 in Vizag with 108, a classy performance from a player who had earned an unwanted reputation for not making the most of his starts.

How had he improved his discipline?

Partly, Mayank told a television interviewer, through “a lot of long distance running and meditation”.

The South Africans have spent most of their time on the field in this series doing something similar, though not out of choice.

And they would seem to be in for more of the same on Friday, what with Kohli 63 not out and Ajinkya Rahane looking set having faced 70 balls for his unbeaten 18.

First published by TMG Digital.

Weary SA look for ways to bounce back

“A lot.” – Faf du Plessis when asked if he had been practising the toss.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

THERE doesn’t seem to be much news value in the fact that Faf du Plessis appeared at his captain’s press conference before the second men’s Test between India and South Africa in Pune a day ahead of schedule.

But there is …

Du Plessis popped up on Tuesday because South Africa’s training session on Wednesday, when he was to have spoken with the press, was cancelled. What he said was embargoed until Wednesday morning.

“It’s to do with the heat of the previous Test,” Du Plessis told reporters by way of explanation.

“The conditions were extremely hot and we spent a lot of time in the field. The thinking is to be fresh.”

India batted for 203 overs in the first Test in Visakhapatnam, where they won by — wouldn’t you know it — 203 runs on Sunday.

The last time South Africa spent more overs than that on trying to stop the opposition from scoring runs was 37 Tests and almost four years ago: India batted for 218 overs in Delhi in November 2015.

Only in seven of those 37 matches have the South Africans come within 30 overs — more or less a session — of languishing in the field for as long as they did in Vizag.

A consolation is that the visitors batted stubbornly enough in the first Test to keep the Indians out there for a marginal 7.5 fewer overs than South Africa.

Even so, India trained on Wednesday in a session that was optional but well-attended — Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami had the day off — and didn’t involve much beyond football and middle order types taking to the nets. 

That kind of energy is part of the momentum that comes with success, but the South Africans will depend on other factors to try and change their fortunes.

“There’s not enough time to find your answers in the nets,” Du Plessis said. “The work has been done before this series, so it’s about trusting that.

“We are a team that’s very resilient and we come back almost always.”

In Vizag, Du Plessis praised a pitch that, while undeniably Indian, allowed South Africa a fair crack at competing.

The surface in Pune, which was condemned officially as “poor” after Australia won the only previous Test there, by 333 runs inside three days in February 2017, is expected to be significantly more receptive to spin.

But Du Plessis wasn’t expecting a horror of the order of what he saw in Mohali and Nagpur in November 2015.

India won those games in less than three days, not least because conditions were skewed unfairly to achieve exactly that. Cue a “poor” verdict for Nagpur’s pitch.

Unsurprisingly, when India toured South Africa in January 2018 they were confronted with vicious greentops. It was the Wanderers’ turn to be rated “poor”.

Those days, Du Plessis believes, are over thanks to the International Cricket Council.

“That’s the big thing the [World] Test Championship has changed,” he said.

“If you had a below average pitch you got a warning whereas now [WTC log] points are deducted.”

Not quite. Only if a match is abandoned because a pitch or indeed an outfield is deemed “unfit” do the points go to the away side. “Poor” still gets you a mere warning, and — as it does now — a suspended sentence threatening the withdrawal of the ground’s international status for a repeat offence.

Even so, confidence in a fairer deal for touring teams in India is probably not misplaced now that Virat Kohli’s team have built up enough success off their own bats not to have to depend on outrageously favourable conditions.

But it wouldn’t hurt to bat first. Had Du Plessis been practising the toss?

“A lot.”

South Africa fielded first in Mohali and Nagpur in 2015, and indeed in the last match of that series in Delhi — where they also lost.

That said, three of the five wins they have had in their 17 Tests in India have been earned batting second.

In the most recent of them, clinched by an innings and six runs in Nagpur in February 2010, Hashim Amla scored an undefeated 253, Jacques Kallis made 173, and Dale Steyn claimed a match haul of 10/108.

None of those giants are still in the mix, which adds to the theory that South Africa will retain their XI despite the result of the first Test. Who in the current squad could help engineer a better performance? *

India, too, are likely to put their trust in the same combination.

But, with heavy rain forecast for most of the next five days, none of that might matter much.

* Anrich Nortjé replaced Dane Piedt in the only change to South Africa’s team.

First published by TMG Digital.

Pune turner bad news for SA?

“The guys are trying to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.” – Senuran Muthusamy.

TELFORD VICE in Cape Town

THE good news for South Africa’s men’s Test squad in India is that they could get most of the weekend off.

The bad news is that, if they do, the pitch in Pune — where the second match of their series against India starts on Thursday — will have been true to its history.

But there’s more good news: the same history says if that happens its the visitors who will be smiling.

The only other Test at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune, in February 2017, when Australia were India’s opponents, ended inside three days.

Spinners bowled 196.5 of the 255.5 overs — more than three-quarters — and took 32 of the 40 wickets.

And Australia won. Properly: by 333 runs. Steve O’Keefe took 6/35 in each innings and Nathan Lyon claimed 5/74 in the game.

Match referee Chris Broad branded the pitch “poor” in his report, and the ground has not seen Test cricket again.

It has since hosted two one-day internationals, in which teams dwindled to nine wickets down or were dismissed three times and 283/9 was the highest total.

But the lesson is that a pitch that offers severe turn isn’t necessarily an insurmountable obstacle for South Africa — particularly not a South Africa side that were able to deploy three slow poisoners in the first Test in Visakhapatnam.

“We’ll see what conditions allow us to do when the game starts,” one of those spinners, Senuran Muthusamy, said in Pune on Tuesday.

“I don’t think we’ll look too much into it beforehand. We’ll try adapt as well as possible.”

But he seemed happier to be in Pune, a famed university city in India’s west, than the sticky, sweaty south: “It’s cooler with not as much humidity as opposed to Visakhapatnam.”

Not that Faf du Plessis’ team were getting hung up on the weather, or whatever else India threw at them.

“We’re looking to enjoy being uncomfortable,” Muthusamy said. “We know the sub-continent is uncomfortable — there’s no comfort zone here, no matter how you look at it.

“The guys are trying to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. That’s the learning zone and the growing zone.” 

As for himself: “I’ve tried to take in as much as I can over the past three weeks, and just improve and grow.”

Muthusamy, a 25-year-old left-arm spinner billed as a batting allrounder, would have learnt plenty in Vizag, where he made his debut.

India won that match by 203 runs on Sunday, but South Africa showed more batting backbone in their innings of 431 and 191 than they did in their last series in India, in November 2015, when they were bowled out for between 79 and 185 and consequently hammered 3-0.

“I really would have wanted to have won my first Test and made an impact with both bat and ball, but it wasn’t to be,” Muthusamy said. “But I’ll take this start.”

He bowled 18 overs for returns of 1/63 — Virat Kohli is as notable a first Test wicket as can be had — and 0/20, and followed his 33 not out in the first innings with an unbeaten 49.

He batted at Nos. 8 and 7, and stood firm through three partnerships in each innings, notably a ninth-wicket stand of 91 with Dane Piedt in the second dig.

“We tried to stretch the partnership as long as possible,” Muthusamy said of his and Piedt’s effort.

“But unfortunately the damage was done before that, where we lost a few too many quick wickets in the morning session and that nullified the resistance that was planned throughout the day.”

Muthusamy surely did enough to keep his place but he may want to consider O’Keefe’s experience as a cautionary tale.

The Pune game was the Malaysian-born, New South Wales left-arm spinner’s fifth Test, and his match figures of 12/70 are the best by a foreign spinner in India, the second-best there overall by a visiting bowler, and 11th on the Aussie all-time list.

But O’Keefe played only four more Tests — three in India, the other in Bangladesh, never taking more than three wickets a game — and hasn’t been seen at that level since September 2017.

Muthusamy has made a decent beginning to his career. It’s up to him to follow through.

First published by TMG Digital.