Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav sliced through South Africa twice on the same day to send India hurtling towards a 3-0 series sweep in the third and final Test. A total of 16 South African wickets tumbled on Monday, with India’s pace duo accounting for half of them, as the touring side reached the brink of another embarrassing innings-defeat.
While it may be true that India enjoyed the best of the batting conditions at the JSCA Stadium, Shami and Umesh looked more threatening on a wearing pitch on the third afternoon than their counterparts had on the opening morning. From 9 for 2 in the first innings overnight, South Africa was bowled out for 162. India duly enforced the follow-on, before reducing the opponent to 132 for eight — still 203 runs in arrears — when bad light brought an end to an extended final session.
Ready to fly
Ahead of the third Test, Dean Elgar was confident that South Africa would not play this match with “one foot on the plane”. The procession in the second innings, though, seemed to suggest that the Proteas had both feet and one arm on board, and were merely waiting for one last suitcase to arrive.
Quinton de Kock was the first to fall in the second innings, Umesh producing a beauty that beat the outside edge and sent the off-stump cartwheeling. Zubayr Hamza, South Africa’s top-scorer in the first essay, received a near-unplayable delivery from Shami, the ball pitching on a good length before straightening to hit the top of off-stump. Faf du Plessis was consumed by one that kept slightly low, before Shami found Temba Bavuma’s outside edge. When Heinrich Klaasen was trapped LBW by Umesh, South Africa had sunk to 36 for five. Theunis de Bruyn, who came in to bat as a concussion substitute for Elgar after the latter had been struck on the helmet by Umesh, remained unbeaten on 30 to take the game into a fourth day.
Perfect outswinger
South Africa’s resistance on the third morning lasted all of five balls, when Umesh castled du Plessis with the sort of delivery mental-conditioning coaches might ask fast bowlers to visualise. It pitched on middle and off before seaming away sharply to clip the top of off-stump. du Plessis stood transfixed, still holding his defensive pose, while around him India’s fielders erupted. The South African captain walked off with a shrug, as if to suggest that he had simply had no answer.
If a collapse had been expected, it did not materialise immediately. Hamza, playing in only his second Test match, scored a fluent, attacking 62. He and Bavuma added 91 runs for the fourth wicket, before both fell in the space of five balls. Hamza was bowled by Jadeja, the ball hurrying through with the arm and crashing into leg-stump as the batsman made room to cut.
Lured out
Bavuma became Shahbaz Nadeem’s first Test victim, lured out of his crease by a delightful, dipping delivery that ripped past the outside edge. Wriddhiman Saha completed the stumping with ease. When Kagiso Rabada was run-out by a direct hit from Umesh from mid-off — on a day when India was excellent in the field — South Africa had lost five for 23.
Anrich Nortje and George Linde then frustrated the home side for over an hour. Nortje survived an extraordinary spell of short-pitched bowling from Shami just after lunch; one ball hit him just below the collarbone, another rapped him on the gloves, a third thudded into the right elbow. There is something about Shami. He extracts disconcerting bounce from the most unresponsive of surfaces, harrying batsmen with a ball 40 overs old on a day-three Indian pitch like it is the most natural thing to do: he is a remarkable bowler, as South Africa will attest.
