India vs South Africa | Predictions for Day 4 in Vizag

What happened on Day 3

Elgar continued to pile up more runs while de Kock kept accelerating with a brisk pace. The South African’s were eight runs shy of the 300-mark by Tea. Even though Kohli tried part-timers like Hanuma Vihari and Rohit Sharma for glory but it did not lead to a breakthrough. It was Ravindra Jadeja who initiated the break picking up Elgar’s wicket after the southpaw lofted the ball to deep mid-wicket.

What to expect from the pitch tomorrow?

After the late destruction by Indian spinners late in Day 4, Bodog expects India to wrap up South Africa’s innings sooner rather than later given the final two batsmen just 24 runs between them. But the visitors played some quality cricket and kept the Indian spinners at bay for the most part of the day even though Ashwin’s trickery handed a few late wickets for India on Day 3. The pitch, which was supposed to be tailor-made for the spinners, behaved as a sporting one. Now that small cracks are appearing, we are expecting that the pitch will wear out further once we approach Day 4. Needless to say, batting is going to get difficult in the later stages of the match.

Indians will be fairly surprised by the fact that the Proteas have played exceedingly well in the first innings and also disappointed that they haven’t been able to bowl them out on the third day. Kohli and Co will aim to pick up the rest of the wickets as early as possible on Saturday.

India will be in an advantageous position if they manage to hold on to an 80-90 run lead. It will be favourable for the batsman to bat through the second and the first hour of the third session, which will offer the best batting conditions of the day. Putting up 200-250 runs will help them set a defendable target.

Weather forecast

There haven’t been any interruptions in play after the loss of the third session on the opening day. But we have had overcast conditions in the latter part of Day 3 with the lights coming into play.

Keshav Maharaj

With just two wickets remaining, South Africa can count on Keshav Maharaj to add some valuable runs on to the overnight score. The right-hander has been the standout batsman in the tail for the Proteas. If South Africa manage to get past the 400-run mark, Keshav is going to play a huge part, that is also the reason why Bodog has backed up Maharaj to help bring down India's lead on Day 4.

Ravichandran Ashwin

The off-spinner came back to his normal routine, scripting a five-for and dismantling the South African batting line-up late on Day 3. He took important wickets of Faf du Plessis, Quinton de Kock and Vernon Philander. With eight wickets down, Ashwin is expected to wind up the Protean innings in the first hour of the day itself. 

With South Africa showing that they are no pushovers on the flat wicket in Visakhapatnam, tomorrow’s first session will decide which way this game is going to swing. Bodog has still shown its faith in India going into Day 4 as they expect the Indian spinners to wrap up the innings close to 408 runs. With India coming into bat for the second time and the lack of big turner of the ball in the South African ranks, India should have a field day with the bat to give them a chance of sealing the first Test on a Day 5 wicket.

Bodog

When to watch: October 5, 2019, 9.30 am

As India try to re-assert their dominance on the game tomorrow, Bodog will bring you all the ups and downs of the game in real-time so that you know who holds the key to the game at any point of time. 

Playing XIs

Rohit Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (c), Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami

South Africa

While you can follow the live coverage on the Star network, Bodog will get you covered all the details about who controls the game at every moment of time with all the live updates.