Over the years, bowlers in international cricket have had their bunnies and it is no different when it comes to one of the most riveting rivalries in world cricket between India and South Africa, with the battle between Zaheer Khan and former Proteas skipper Graeme Smith topping the list in the recent past. Out of 15 Tests that Smith played against India, Zaheer dismissed Smith on seven occasions. On Thursday, South Africa’s pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada matched Zak’s figures with his wobble-seam magic clipping Rohit Sharma’s off-stump, when India came in to bat for a second time in the Boxing Day Test after conceding a lead of 163 runs at the Centurion Park.
This was the second time in the match that Rohit fell to his nemesis as the India skipper departed for a duck after failing to negotiate a peach of a delivery aided by the seam movement. Rabada, who could have begun India’s second innings with a wicket had Yashasvi Jaiswal’s edge landed directly on Aiden Markram’s hands at second slip, kept bowling an unplayable line to set up Rohit in the first four deliveries before landing the fifth on the seam and as the ball decked away past the outside edge, it clipped the off stump leaving Rohit stunned as he took the long walk back to the dressing room.
With the twin dismissals of Rohit in the ongoing Test, Rabada extended his dominance over the Indian to seven dismissals in 11 innings.
Rohit’s dismissal also unfolded the same old sad story from the Indian camp as far as their top order batting is concerned, as wickets began to tumble at regular intervals with Jaiswal and Shubman Gill following their skipper back to the dressing room.
On his first senior tour of South Africa, Jaiswal (5) was undone by the extra bounce that debutant left-arm pacer Nandre Burger generated from the Centurion pitch. The southpaw, who began with an exquisite cover drive off the same bowler, would consider himself unfortunate as he tried leaving a rising ball that kept rising up to his gloves and eventually kissed it for the keeper to complete the rest.
Gill came out with the right intent, playing the most God like extra cover drives, to get to a breezy 37-ball 26, laced with six boundaries, but then he missed a straight one from Marco Jansen, discounted as the support act among the South African quicks to once again highlight why his Test career is still a work in progress.
Just like the first essay, it was once again left to Virat Kohli and Shreyas Iyer to drag India from troubled waters, although Iyer survived a dropped chance off an edge from Jansen as India left for tea at 62 for 3, still trailing by 101 runs.
However, on return, Jansen had the last laugh against Iyer, this time, all by himself with a fuller delivery that nipped back into the Mumbaikar, who got an inside edge into the stumps to leave India tottering at 72 for 4.
KL Rahul (4), whose impressive ton saved India from the blushes in the first innings also failed to make an impact and fell to a burst of wickets from Burger, who got two in two, including Ravichandran Ashwin for a first ball duck, to leave India reeling at 96 for 6.
At the other end, Kohli, who had been positive with his intent so far, slamming a rare six (25th to be precise) in his 111-Test career, knew it was all left on his shoulders. With India still trailing by more than 60 runs, and Kohli nearing a half century, he narrowly survived the hat-trick ball from Burger even as the South African fielders erupted in anticipation of getting the big wicket of Kohli, it was shortlived as the Indian batting maestro stamped his class with a glorious strike through midwicket to bring up a 61-ball fifty.
In the same over, new man Shardul Thakur received a reprieve when Jansen dropped him but Rabada came back to haunt India again, getting Thakur caught at gully as India started staring at an innings defeat. Jasprit Bumrah (0) and Mohammed Siraj (4) did the tailender things, with the former being run out while attempting a second and the latter succumbed while trying to duck a bouncer from Burger.
With last man Prasidh Krishna in company, Kohli switched gears to reduce the deficit for the innings loss, and ended up scoring 76 off 82 balls, laced with 12 boundaries and a six before holing out to Rabada off Jansen, as a clinical South Africa completed their innings and 32 run-win by wrapping things within three days to protect the Final Frontier!
Elgar misses double ton but propels hosts past 400
Earlier, Dean Elgar, playing his final Test match at his home ground, fell narrowly short of a maiden double Test ton by 15 runs but his knock, along with an unbeaten 84 from Jansen, helped the hosts build on from their slender overnight lead of 11 runs to 163 runs by the time Jasprit Bumrah cleaned up the tail to return with splendid figures of 4 for 69 in the post-lunch session.
The impending freedom of retirement from Test cricket provided South Africa opener Elgar the freedom to play one of his best knocks, infact his second highest individual score in whites after his 199.
Having walked back undefeated on 140 when bad light stopped play on the second day, Elgar on Thursday, mixed caution with aggression as he first got to his 150 with a cover drive before breaking the shackles in anticipation of the landmark 200, but fell short when Shardul Thakur got him caught down leg side, to silence the crowd as the 36-year-old local lad walked back after scoring his maiden century at home, among his 14 Test tons in 84 games.
Jansen, who by then had got to his career’s second Test half century was going strong, and looked set to go past his highest Test score of 87 but Ravichandran Ashwin removed Gerald Coetzee (19), and Bumrah returned to clean up the tail – Rabada (1) and Burger (0) – leaving Jansen unbeaten on 84, as skipper Temba Bavuma never returned to bat after injuring his left hamstring on the opening day.