Famously called as the “Final Frontier ” The South African Test Series began on a rather sad note for the Rohit Sharma led Indian Team under the management of coach Rahul Dravid. South Africans in their own backyard humiliated the Indians with colossal innings and 32 runs defeat with 3.5 days of the Iconic Boxing day test match with no Indian Batter apart from KL Rahul in the 1st innings and Virat Kohli in the 2nd innings showed grit and determination to put on the fight against the fiery South African pace attack
More lackluster and shambolic performance on the pitch that supported considerable swing alongside pace and bounce were the performances of Indian bowlers who were unable to extract any in compared to their counterparts who ripped aside the Indian batting line up comprising of the mixture of youth and experience seasoned players.
Such was the wayward performance of Indian bowlers except Bumrah that South Africa even without the services of Captain Temba Bavuma who did not bat due to hamstring injury sustained in the match racked up a mountain of runs 408 for 9 wickets to be precise after bundling India for 245 runs thanks to century from KL Rahul and taking the lead of 163 runs in their first Innings.
This lead proved more than enough for their quicks to rattle out India in the second innings for mere 131 runs with no batter apart from Virat Kohli showed resistance and grit to even stand on with him and forge a partnership decent enough. It clearly showed the lack of experience Indian youths with the likes of Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal had and the impact of performance from Team India
Former South African speedster famously known as “White Lightening ” in the cricketing circuit, Allan Donald firmly believes that none other Indian batter than the likes of Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar had the right way to play and survive on the South African pitches.
For the record, Sachin Tendulkar is among the only two batters (the other being Wally Hammond of England) to score over a thousand runs in South Africa in Tests. With 1161 runs in 15 Tests, he is the second-highest run-getter in the Rainbow Nation; Tendulkar has five centuries and three fifties in South Africa with the innings of 169 runs being his highest.
It’s not easy to bat in South Africa – Allan Donald
Former South African speedster famously known as “White Lightening ” Proteas’ fast bowling legend Allan Donald reckons South Africa is one of the toughest places for overseas players to bat. While sharing his views on Indian batters’ struggles, Donald said that players whose footwork is not spot-on will find themselves in trouble, adding that Sachin Tendulkar is among the few to have stood up to the challenge.
India suffered an embarrassing innings and 32-run defeat in the first Test against South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. The visitors were bowled out for 245 in their first innings with only KL Rahul (101) offering resistance. In the second innings, they crumbed to 131 all-out.
Reflecting on Team India’s batting woes in the Rainbow Nation, Donald was quoted as saying in a PTI report:
“It’s not an easy place to combat. We see that daily in South Africa, the ball does nip around more than it does in Australia or England. If your footwork isn’t 100 percent then you are in trouble,” said Allan Donald.
“Only person I know who played us well was Tendulkar, who triggered (had a trigger movement) while batting in South Africa rather than stand on middle-stump. He pressed forward and left the ball amazingly well,” he added.
Sharing advice for visiting batters on how to tackle South African conditions, the former pacer added that knowing which ball to leave is crucial.
“If you leave the ball well here, you can score runs. You got to get bowlers to come to you and search a little bit more. They start coming to you, the opportunities of scoring get better. It’s an interesting phenomenon as it’s tough to bat. In Cape Town though, it will be a very good Test pitch. It will flatten out quickly, so you need to work very hard,” the 57-year-old added.
Virat Kohli (76 off 82) top scored for India in the second innings in Centurion. Shubman Gill (26) was the only other Indian batter to reach double figures in the second innings failure at Centurion.
Indian bowlers searched too much for things to happen- Allan Donald
While India’s batting crumbled in Centurion, their bowlers also disappointed, as South Africa scored 408 in their first innings, gaining a significant lead of 163. Allan Donald said that the hosts got the better of the conditions but also added that India’s bowlers were not patient enough and lost their lines and lengths too soon.
“For India, there was one debutant (Prasidh Krishna). I thought (Jasprit) Bumrah, but Indian bowlers searched too much for things to happen. They quickly reverted to shorter balls and then lost their length a bit on the shorter side and then got opened up on either side – square leg, off side and SA batters capitalized,” the former fast bowler concluded.
While Bumrah ended with impressive figures of 4-69, Shardul Thakur (1-101) and Prasidh (1-93) proved very expensive in the Centurion Test
With the New Year Test starting at Cape Town from January 3, it would interesting to see how the Indian players cope up with the suggestions given by the greats and show significant improvement to draw level the test series 1-1 and salvage some pride by beginning New Year 2024 on a brighter note.