After South Africa were rolled over in less than three and a half days in Centurion, there were questions over their ability to stand up to this mighty Indian bowling attack on perhaps an even spicier pitch at Wanderers.
Those doubts have been well and truly knocked out of the park in Johannesburg by Dean Elgar & Co with a commanding seven-wicket win over the No. 1 Test team.
The teams will now leave the Highveld to play the deciding match in Cape Town, with India still having a chance to register their maiden Test series win in South Africa.
Ahead of what promises to be a corker, we take a look at a few talking points from the Wanderers Test below.
South Africa’s rock: Dean Elgar
This may well be the finest moment of the South Africa Test captain’s career. Forever the ultimate fighter, Elgar took his art of absorbing blow after blow to another level, aptly at a ground also known as the Bullring. As the light began to fade on the third evening, Elgar stood firm in the chase with an over-my-dead-body look.
Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Shami hit him on the side of the helmet grille, the right glove and the right shoulder respectively. After the first blow, which must have hurt immensely, all Elgar did was to go down on a knee and stare with an even more determined look on his face. After the third blow, Elgar even chatted up the umpires with a smile on his face.
As he said after leading South Africa home to the target of 240 with an unbeaten 96, he actually draws on all that pain to steel himself further. “Some call it stupid, some call it brave. I like to see it as the latter,” Elgar said. It would be stupid to call him anything but brave.
The rest follow the leader
Elgar wants to set an example for this inexperienced South African batting line-up. He wants them to put their bodies on the line, just like he does every single ball he faces. And they did stand up to the Indians in their own ways.
With even survival difficult on a cracked up-and-down pitch, Keegan Petersen made a silken half-century in the first innings full of strokes that only an incredibly talented batter can play.
White-ball captain Temba Bavuma smacked a purposeful fifty in the first innings and followed it up with an unbeaten 23 in the chase, refusing to leave the job of finishing things to others.
But what stood out the most was Rassie van der Dussen’s crucial 40 in the chase. Van der Dussen had had a torrid series until then, with scores of 3, 11 and 1. He had been given a working over by Shami and Thakur in the first innings and had also got an earful from wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant. Not only did he give it back to Pant with chirp, he also took the attack to the Indians on the fourth evening, effectively shutting them out of the match.
Winding up KG
The veteran pair of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane were threatening to run away with the game on the third morning. South Africa’s spearhead Kagiso Rabada had sent down a few indifferent overs when something seemed to switch on in his bowling. He rediscovered his venom and bite and sent back Rahane, Pujara and Pant in three successive overs.
Rahane got an almost unplayable delivery that was angled in but zipped away and bounced to take the outside edge. Pujara was trapped in front by a sharp inducker. Pant decided to hit his way out of trouble after being sledged back by van der Dussen standing in his face at short leg. But the Indian keeper chose the wrong bowler to target in a charged-up Rabada.
Turns out that Elgar had had a tough conversation with his lead bowler, and it had worked. "I went up to KG and I said to him, 'you are an immensely respected cricketer within our group and at the moment I don't think you are conducting yourself extremely well,’” Elgar revealed after the game. That surely woke up the sleeping giant as he sent India hurtling from 2/155 to 5/167.
Baptism by fire for KL Rahul
KL Rahul is the leader-in-waiting in Indian cricket. But going into the Wanderers Test, he had led all of once in his 84 first-class matches, for India ‘A’ against England Lions at home in 2019.
And suddenly, he was called upon to forge a tricky balance between attack and defence in the low-scoring affair at Wanderers after Virat Kohli pulled out with a back spasm.
It will be harsh to judge him from a single overseas game, but there were certainly periods where India seemed to miss Kohli’s typical intensity and aggression. Like when Rahul persisted with the half-fit Mohammed Siraj in the first innings and kept Bumrah out of the attack for a considerable length of time. Or when he packed the leg-side field for R Ashwin, which meant a defensive line on the stumps instead of an attempt to utilise some footmarks outside the right-hander’s off stump. It got trickier in the chase, but Rahul perhaps spread the field out too early, facilitating much easier rotation of the strike and easing of pressure. It is only the start, though, and he will learn to be more proactive.
Pant: Natural game or reckless stunt?
Pant has scored Test hundreds in Australia and England, and who can forget that immortal unbeaten 89 to breach Fort Gabba last January. But it is probably too early in his career to claim ‘that’s the way he plays’ each time he falls early to an irresponsible stroke. Like he did at Wanderers in the second innings after seniors Pujara and Rahane had fought hard to start building a lead for India.
The keeper had had plenty to say to van der Dussen from behind the stumps earlier so it was only to be expected that the South African would return the favour when Pant came out to bat. Pant was clearly riled up as he told van der Dussen to focus on his own game instead. And third ball, he decided to have a mad dash at Rabada of all bowlers only to nick his wild slog to the keeper Verreynne.
Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar was decidedly unimpressed on commentary, and said that it was rather poor of Pant to throw his wicket away when his team-mates were fighting hard. After the match, India coach Rahul Dravid said the team management would certainly be having a conversation with Pant about his shot selection.
That familiar conundrum again
Pujara and Rahane seem to have given themselves some more breathing space after their second-innings fifties under pressure in Johannesburg. Hanuma Vihari, getting to play a Test after a year only because Kohli wasn’t playing, did little wrong at No. 5. He fought for 53 balls in the first innings before getting a snorter from Rabada. And he batted superbly with the lower order to make an unbeaten 40 in the second.
After all this, he may yet find himself cruelly out of the XI in Cape Town, as Kohli is expected to return for the decider. The only way Vihari might retain his spot is if opener Mayank Agarwal, who seemed to have hurt himself while trying to stop a four, somehow fails to recover in four days. In that unlikely scenario, Vihari could be pushed up to open alongside Rahul, with Kohli taking his customary No. 4 position and Rahane slotting back at No. 5.
Vihari has had a taste of the first new ball twice before in Test cricket, against Australia in Melbourne 2018-19. But that will happen again only if India feel they do not want to risk playing a debutant opener in Priyank Panchal for a deciding Test.
