After bowling out South Africa for 335 runs in the first inning of the second Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion, Indian skipper Virat Kohli fought a lone battle before the visitors were bowled out for 307.
Other than Virat (153), only opener Murali Vijay and spin wizard Ravichandran Ashwin left a mark with the bat with Ashwin scoring 38 and Vijay 46 runs for India.
On the third day of the second Test match, the Indian captain rattled the Proteas bowling attack and earned praises from South African speedster Morne Morkel. The 33-year-old believes that this Indian team have the potential to win a series in South Africa.
Faf du Plessis side had taken a lead of 118 runs with the help of AB de Villiers’ half century as the day ended. In the second inning Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah disturbed the hosts top order by sending Hashim Amla (1) and Aiden Markram (1) back to the pavilion.
However, de Villiers and Dean Elgar later stabilised their inning.
While talking about Kohli’s sensational knock, Morkel said: “Virat is very competitive. They are over here to compete and they’ve got a team that could potentially beat South Africa for the first time here. That’s his nature. It gets him going and keeps him going. We’re well aware of that but we don’t take any notice of it. And if you get a batsman of his quality, you’ve got time to adjust.”
“Bowling certain lengths, certain lines, we’ve got that small window to make a play. To keep him quiet on this sort of surface, we have to bowl as many dot balls as possible,” Morkel added.
While talking about Jasprit Bumrah’s spell, Morkel said, “Bumrah has got the perfect action for this sort of wicket. He is very skiddy. Talking to our batters and doing some preparation before the Test match, we’ve got our game plans.”
“Talking about collapses (in the second innings) is a bit of a red flag but it’s something that we do talk about – losing a cluster of wickets is not ideal.”
“Individuals must take responsibility, but there’s a massive thing in the team to build partnerships. Hopefully tomorrow we can get that lead that we want,” the Proteas pacer concluded.