Bharath Ramaraj
Day 1 of the India-South Africa Test at Eden Gardens began on the right note for the visitors. They didn’t just win the toss but also made a promising start. At one point, they were 57 for no loss. Soon, that became 62 for 2, then 120 for 5. Ultimately, the score read 159 all out.
It is a fact that the track is offering variable bounce, the kind of conditions where the batter is never really in. But it isn’t exactly a raging turner, and South Africa should have made a better fist of their first-innings effort. Just take a deep dive into South Africa’s batting unit in these climes and you would notice that they lack the experience, and a couple of their mainstays haven’t performed well in Asia.
Aiden Markram and Temba Bavuma average in the mid and high-20s in Asia. To his credit, Markram looked in fine touch in the first innings, only to get out to a brute of a delivery from Jasprit Bumrah. What about Bavuma? In the DRS era, his tendency to play with his bat and pad close together might have hurt his prospects against left-arm orthodox spinners on turners. No wonder, out of the six times he has been dismissed LBW by spinners in Test cricket, five of them have come against left-arm orthodox spinners.
Bavuma’s front foot stride is naturally a short one, and that doesn’t help him to smother the spin effectively. Incidentally, he was caught at backward short-leg in the first dig of the Eden Gardens Test. To make matters worse for the tourists, none of the other batters had played a single Test in India before the Eden Gardens game. Dewald Brevis, known for his attacking instincts while facing spin, wasn’t picked in the playing XI.
Despite all the negatives, South Africa have the required tools in the spin department in the form of Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer. Ideally, however, the spin duo would have hoped for their batters to steer South Africa to a competitive total. For now, the spin twins have an enormous task to restrict India’s lead to as little as possible.
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