India vs South Africa | Spinners hold the key in the run-chase, reckons Shaun Pollock

India vs South Africa | Spinners hold the key in the run-chase, reckons Shaun Pollock

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Shaun Pollock believes that the spinners will come into effect soon in the run chase and the SA need to score fast to stay away from that. Sunil Gavaskar, while dissecting what went wrong for the Indian batsmen, added that the visitors' tentativeness to play pull shot resulted in a moderate total.

Port Elizabeth has been known as the bowlers’ paradise and the slow and low conditions don’t help batsmen's cause either. While India, today, started their innings on a positive note by not letting the bowlers boss around them in the beginning, they actually were not at their fluent best and found runs hard to come by in the middle over. 

While speaking to Harsha Bhogle on the broadcasting analysis, Pollock, who has played at the stadium all through his life, analyzed it by saying, “We did see a decline in the scoring rate once the two Kookaburras got soft. It’s difficult for the batsmen to get away and the spinners got the ball to grip and the slower balls started to hold up on the surface. If SA are to chase down this target they need to get off to a fast start so that there is no pressure on them and then with some wickets in the hands they can knock them over in the back end.”

After Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan and then Kohli laid the foundation for a good total, the Indian middle-order messed it up and failed to counter Lungi Ngidi. The inconsistent bounce resulted in India batsmen failing to play the hook and pull shots with good measure and ended up miscuing them more often than not. Gavaskar pointed out that while saying that it cost India the good total.   

“Indians do play the shot very well. But as far as playing the pull shot or the hook shot is concerned, they are just that little tentative. They don't get a hold of the hook and the pull shot every time. So I think the tactics that the South Africans used particularly towards the end where they bowled short of length deliveries continuously and tucked the batsmen was one of the reasons why India was not able to capitalize from the position of 170/2 and get to 300,” Gavaskar said in the same conversation.  

“South Africa have done their homework. They are learning. The way they tackled the spinners at the Wanderers and the way they bowled here today, it’s going to take something special from India, and their spinners, to stop SA."

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