Tristan Stubbs was concentration personified on way to a well-deserved fifty, taking South Africa’s lead to an insurmountable 507 runs at lunch on the fourth day of the second Test against India.
Going into the break, South Africa had scored 220 for four having already batted for two sessions on the penultimate day.
Stubbs (60 batting, 155 balls) who missed out on a fifty in the first innings by a single run, put his head down for a solid effort.
South Africa’s main aim during the first two sessions was to ensure that no way India could have whiff of the target in the fourth innings.
There was a good degree of turn on offer during the opening session where Ravindra Jadeja (3/46 in 24 overs) and Washington Sundar (1/67 in 22 overs) accounted for three wickets.
Tony de Zorzi (49 off 68 balls) and Stubbs though frustrated the Indian spinners in the second session with a 101-run stand when the ball got soft.
While Stubbs hit five boundaries, De Zorzi had four boundaries and a six to his credit with a lot of sweep shots to counter the turn. He was dismissed by Jadeja but by then Proteas were in cruise control.
After a certain point, the body language of the Indian fielders dropped and it seemed they waited for the second season to end by which a declaration was expected.
What will worry the Indian batters is the sudden turn that both Jadeja and Washington started extracting in first session which was more than four degrees as per the host broadcasters.
Both are not known to get a lot of purchase on a helpful surface and the purchase they got was an indicator that the top soil is wearing away and would crumble more quickly when Indians bat last to save the game.
Openers Ryan Rickleton (35 off 64 balls) and Aiden Markram (29 off 84 balls) once again had a half-century stand before Jadeja removed both.
Rickleton, trying to reach to the pitch of the delivery, came too close and his lofted drive over cover couldn’t beat Mohammed Siraj, who timed his jump to perfection.
In case of Markram, Jadeja bowled a classical left-arm orthodox spinner’s delivery. He tossed it a tad slower drawing Markram into a forward defense. The batter had covered the angle perfectly but the ball gripped and then turned sharply to pass the outer edge and hit the off-stump.
The steady Washington then got rid of rival skipper Temba Bavuma (3) as one bowled in leg-middle lien cramped the batter for room and also jumped enough to kiss the gloves and fly towards leg-slip to Nitish Kumar Reddy. PTI KHS BS BS
