South Africa V India, 2nd Test, Day 4 Review: South Africa Near Yet Another Series Victory

Hosts South Africa are on the verge of yet another series victory at home after finishing Day 4 of the 2^nd test against India on a commanding position after reducing the visitors to 35/3 at the end of the day’s play. India still needs 253 more runs to level the 3 match series. However, they have lost the centurion from the 1^st innings Virat Kohli pretty cheaply so it would need a monumental task from the rest of the Indian batters to harbor any hopes of leveling the three-match series.

South Africa began the day on 90/2 with overnight batsmen Dean Elgar and AB de Villiers starting proceedings. They got off to a steady start for the day and found the boundaries quite frequently. De Villiers looked in sensational touch and struck boundaries during his knock of 80 of 121 deliveries which were studded with 10 hits to the fence.

It was Mohammed Shami who provided the opening breakthrough of the day as De Villiers gloved a pitch of a delivery straight to Parthiv Patel. It was a sensational delivery which got the visitors going. Dean Elgar was dismissed in quick succession as he was holed out in the deep by KL Rahul. It was a short pitch delivery, and he failed to keep it down.

Quinton de Kock was the next man to go, and it was just a bizarre piece of batting from the southpaw. He edged three consecutive deliveries through the slip cordon but got lucky thrice. However, he wasn’t 4^th time lucky as Parthiv Patel pouched on to a straightforward catch.

There was a good partnership between du Plessis and Vernon Philander, but the Indian bowlers kept chipping away with the wickets and never allowed the Proteas to run away with the game. Eventually it Proteas managed to score 258 in the 2^nd innings thus giving India a total of 286 to chase. Mohammed Shami was the wrecker-in-chief finishing with four wickets while Jasprit Bumrah also bagged three wickets.

India was pegged back early as the visitors lost three quick wickets in the form of Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, and skipper Virat Kohli. Both Vijay and Rahul was dismissed from poor shots while debutant Lungi Ngidi bagged the wicket of Virat Kohli.

Brief Scores

South Africa 1^st innings 335 all-out (Aiden Markram 94, Hashim Amla 82, Ravichandran Ashwin 4/113, Ishant Sharma 3/46)

India 1^st innings 307 all-out (Virat Kohli 153, Ravichandran Ashwin 38, Morne Morkel 4/60)

South Africa 2^nd innings 258 all-out (AB de Villiers 80, Faf du Plessis 61, Mohammed Shami 4/49, Jasprit Bumrah 3/70)

India 2^nd innings 35/3 (Cheteshwar Pujara 11*, Lungi Ngidi 2/14)

India needs 253 more runs to win