India v South Africa, 3rd Test, Day 1 - South Africa are 11 for 2 at stumps

I was pretty surprised to see Morne Morkel and Kagiso Rabada’s length in the morning. Both of them clocked around 140 plus, but speed is useless if your length is not the ideal one. On a track which is offering slow-and-low bounce from the word go, it’s pretty inappropriate to waste your energy bowling too short with pace. A fuller length would have been good for South Africa to script an early breakthrough.

Morkel did correct his length – fullish from shorter – in his second spell and so did Rabada. It helped the Proteas a lot to dry up the runs and build the pressure on the Indian batters. Yes, the pressure did help a lot as the Indian innings suddenly lost its momentum and from 94 for 2, they were found wanting at 125 for 6. But, the collapse was arrested by Ravindra Jadeja and Wridiman Saha as they added crucial 48 runs for the seventh wicket which helped India to post a total which might prove competitive enough given the nature of the track and the spinners India have.

The Nagpur track is slow, low, dusty and cracked. Simon Harmer spit the ball viciously and surely, the Indian spinners are expected to extract a bit more as they are well aware of how to exploit  this track. The South Africa start says it all. Jadeja and Ashwin are back in business as a testing second day awaiting for the Proteas batsmen.

An old fashioned occupying the crease is the order of the day.

Thank You

Faisal Caesar