Centurion — Temba Bavuma, who top scored for South Africa with 52 in an otherwise dismal first innings display by the hosts, refused to throw in the towel despite the Proteas being in a precarious position heading into the fourth day of the first Test against India.
The tourists lead by 146 runs with nine second innings wickets in hand on a pitch that is gradually showing signs of inconsistent bounce. “We need to play with the same kind of intensity we showed (Tuesday) morning,” said the Proteas’s vice captain. “What’s happened has happened, the first session on Wednesday will be super key.”
South Africa bowled India out for 327 with Lungi Ngidi taking 6/71.
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However the Proteas have struggled to raise their intensity through crucial phases of the match with both bat and ball. In fact on both counts they have started slowly, giving India the initiative. Bavuma, pointed to the lack of Test play for South Africa this year as one reason. “I don’t want to be seen as making excuses, it does have an impact if you look at how we played on the first day. As much as we had India 270/3 I don’t believe that that is the standard or the intensity that we know we can play at. I think one of the factors is the lack of match practice — you can have as many nets as you want but nothing really simulates going out on the field.”
This is India’s 14th Test match in the last 12 months, while the Proteas are playing just their sixth. India last played three weeks ago, while South Africa will have to dig into the memory banks to find their last Test — which was played six months ago. “There is that disparity in terms of games, but it's not an excuse, as players we need to make sure that mentally we are up for it when we are up against the challenge,” said Bavuma.
That challenge has included KL Rahul producing a good old fashioned Test innings on the first day when he made a century — showing great patience and leaving the ball well outside off stump — and then on Tuesday, when Mohammed Shami produced a magnificent seam bowling display to pick up 5/44.
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“Shami is a world class bowler. We’ve seen him do it around the world, it's not something we don’t expect but as batters we’ve got to front up and back our defence. Kudos to him, he bowled a lot of good balls. What we’d like to do is cut out the soft dismissals but if a guy is bowling well, like he did, then credit to him.”
IOL Sport