India v South Africa, 3rd Test, Day 2 - The Nagpur track was a testing one, but the Proteas batsmen were very poor

How was the track at Kotla when Viv Richards announced his arrival at the international arena with that epic 192 not out against an attack comprising of Bishan Bedi, Prasanna and Venkataraghavan in 1974-75?  How was the track when Suni Gavaskar scored that epic 96 against Pakistan in Bengaluru in 1987?   How was the track at Mumbai when Kevin Pietersen and Alastair Cook scored those epic hundreds against the Indian spinners?

I guess those tracks were rank-turners and they were as similar as Nagpur. Or, they were more dangerous than Nagpur, I guess.  Why were Viv, Sunny, Pietersen and Cook so successful on such minefields? Viv and Pietersen mixed resolve and aggression brilliantly while Sunny and Cook exhibited the perfect example of how to occupy the crease relying on copybook technique.

Occupation at the crease and copybook technique will never be understood by those players and fans who are the fans of a meaningless format like Twenty20 and those of who are criticizing the Nagpur track should also sit down and watch how the South Africans batsmen batted!

The Nagpur track was a dust-bowl from day one and it seemed that cricket was played on it for days and the second day it was expected to be a testing one, but still, for a champion team like South Africa, boasting with Hashim Amla, Faf Du Plessis and AB de Villiers, was it that dangerous or poor a track to be skittled out for just 79 runs? I don’t think so. The track was substandard, but how good were the Proteas batsmen? JP Dumminy showed how to bat on this track.

 Why are the critics not blaming the technique?

 Were the South African batters enough patient? How many of them got behind the line of the ball and played it late? What about their defence and footwork? How many went on the backfoot? Why the Proteas batsmen were in a hurry? The South Africans knew very well that the tracks will be such and so does the world, then why the hullabaloo? 

At the moment, India are all set to break South Africa’s unbeaten record in Test series since 2006. They way their batsmen are batting, it will an uphill task for them to chase 310 runs.

Thank You

Faisal Caesar