IND vs SA | Pune Day 3 Talking Points - South Africa slump to pace and Big Vern makes India work

ByAnirudh Suresh, SportsCafe Editor

10/12/2019

After losing two wickets early on, there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel for the Proteas, but Vernon Philander and Keshav Maharaj strung together a marathon partnership to keep things interesting. But despite their heroics, India continue to remain firmly in the drivers' seat.

South Africa get stumped by pace

“If you focus on that area (spin), you may miss out on other aspects," said South Africa’s batting coach Amol Muzumdar ahead of the series. Oh well, after what has transpired so far in Pune, it is clear that the Proteas have went ahead and did just that, focused solely on the spinners. South Africa being reduced to 53/5 on a flat deck, although disappointing, is not much of a surprise. However, the fact that they lost all five of them to pace is startling, appalling, and in the long run, alarming.

In many ways, the dismissal of Thenuis de Bruyn - where he went for an extravagant cut with the ball close to his body - epitomized their struggles as it demonstrated a clear lack of discipline and planning, especially against the pacers, to whom they have already lost 11 wickets so far this series. But this was never supposed to happen, was it? The whole narrative of the series, especially after Jasprit Bumrah’s injury, was built around the visitors and their battle against spin and sadly, it looks like South Africa have fallen for the trap.

Is this case of South Africa merely under-estimating the threat of pace? Perhaps, yes, as from their own performance with the ball, there was no evidence to suggest that the pitch was a pacer’s paradise by any means. South Africa had their eyes on the King and the Queen, but even before they could get to them, were knocked off by the Pawns and the Knights hidden in plain sight.

South Africa’s lower-order put top-order batsmen to shame

While Dane Piedt and Senuran Muthusamy put their specialist batsmen to shame in the Vizag Test, today, it was the turn of Keshav Maharaj and Vernon Philander to do the same. Ironically, the duo dug it out and combated the Indian bowlers in much tougher conditions compared to what their top-order counterparts faced and whilst they were at it, kept the scoreboard ticking, leaving Kohli frustrated - arguably for the first time in the series.

Big Vern, in particular, showcased unbelievable grit, courage and determination, facing a total of 192 balls, by far the highest he has in a single innings in his career, 49 more than his previous best of 143; high time to start acknowledging him as an all-rounder, perhaps? While the fighting spirit of the lower-order is commendable, this brings into the spotlight a bigger problem - the incompetence and the averseness of the top order to dig in and take the fight to the opposition.

4, 8 and 5 - the number of wickets South Africa have lost before the 30th over in each of their three innings in this series so far. The fragility of the top-order has meant that the Proteas have never capitalized on the softness of the old ball and by capitulating up top, have ended up playing catch-up early into the innings every time they’ve come to bat. Both Philander/Maharaj today and Muthusamy/Piedt in Vizag proved that with enough determination and a pre-fixed plan, the oh-so-invincible Indian bowling line-up can be made to toil, but sadly for the visitors, until and unless the top order sort out their radical issues, the lower-order heroics will continue to remain as false klaxon before the inevitable death knell.

Chris Gaffney and Nigel Llong salvage some much-needed pride for umpiring

Ashes 2019 served as an advertisement for the need of technology in cricket, with the series seeing a staggering 20+ decisions overturned. The decision-making by the umpires, at one point, were as absurd as David Warner’s batting and it eventually came to a point where everyone unanimously agreed that we might in fact be better off with Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the future. Whilst heading into this series, umpiring was the least of everyone’s concerns, a good showing was still needed by the men out in the middle to restore respect and salvage pride.

And today, on-field umpires Chris Gaffaney and Nigel Llong proved that there is after all hope left for umpiring in the game, without the intervention of technology. The duo enjoyed a 100% success rate with their decisions and were also proven right by DRS when they were put to the test - thrice, twice by South Africa and once by India. The best decision of the day - and arguably the series - came in the post-lunch session, when Llong, despite India stopping their appeal, took his time to rule Muthusamy out. In the final over of the day, umpire Gaffney, too, passed his test, when Rabada challenged his LBW call.

Sure, we might be reading too much into it and these might be nothing more than regulation decisions, but at a time where umpiring has been under the scanner, the duo did a commendable job on a wicket that offered plenty of turn and bounce, thus making their job a tad more difficult. After everything that’s been going on in the past couple of months, the art of umpiring needed some reassurance and so far, the duo of Llong and Gaffney have done just that, not just in this match, but throughout the entirety of this series.