That was the toughest piece of batting I've had to do in my life. I
always try to be positive but with the runs not being the priority, time
was the key and that was tough for me. The toughest part is when I have
to against my natural instinct, which is to score runs. Here, the main
thing is time. It's not the runs and batting time is quite tough," he
said.
Though India have full 90 overs on Monday to get the visitors out on the pitch that is getting slower and unpredictable with every passing time, it would not be any easy thing for Proteas to keep stonewalling the Indian bowlin
"If you see any pitch, it starts getting slower and slower. You don't get the desirable pace or bounce from the wicket. This is happening with this wicket also as the pace off the track has gone. Even if you are bowling a bouncer, you are not able to work up the desired pace. It's travelling easy (towards the batsman)," observed Indian pacer Yadav, with a hope that reverse swing will also come into play on the last day.
On their 72nd day in India, the South Africans scored 72 runs in 72 overs. Numerologists would lap up such perfect symmetry and cite it as a proof of divinity in numbers. Something ethereal did unfold at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium on Sunday, but it can’t be wholly captured in mere facts and figures. Remarkable though they are, the numbers in this context are shallow.
They will tell you it was a day of hard graft, but won’t come close to describing the Proteas’ grit. They will suggest it was day when Kotla watched the grass grow and paint dry. Which couldn’t be further from the truth, as it was a most arresting day of Test cricket.
More numbers. A 207-ball-23* will suggest Hashim Amla played a long and patient knock, but it won’t encapsulate the impact it had on you. This epic innings — and to an extent those of AB de Villiers (91-ball 11*) and Temba Bavuma (117-ball 34) — distorted your sense of time and space. You felt one had expanded even as the other had contracted. Given an improbable 481-run target with over five sessions to bat, South Africa lost Dean Elgar before lunch to Ravichandran Ashwin. Amla and Bavuma resumed on the other side of the break having removed the one of the basic essence of cricket: runs. On Sunday, to quote Bavuma, they were batting time. The scoreboard became immaterial. Their focus was on rebuilding their battered reputation, block by block.
Over after over after over, you saw Ashwin (and Ravindra Jadeja) trying to dismiss Amla, only for the bearded and bespectacled batsman to softly pat the ball dead. But with the scorecard barely ticking for long periods, it looked like one interminable delivery. A moment frozen in time.
This illusion of temporal expansion happened due to a spatial contraction of the cricket field. With Amla looking only to defend, the ball very rarely crossed the centre square. At one stage, there were seven players, including the wicketkeeper, around the bat. It seemed as if the vast Kotla ground had shrunk itself into its rectangular core. Consequently, the over-rate shot up. In fact four extra overs were bowled in the scheduled seven hours of play when a normal winter day in north India routinely falls five to six overs short.
It all may sound as boring as watching an inane gif of the forward-defensive on Vine. It wasn’t. There were fascinating mind games and subtle changes in strategy. Having seen that Amla and Bavuma had come with the sole intention stonewalling, Kohli employed his pacers from one end and told them to bowl from around the wicket.
For him, the other batsmen will have to follow the Amla-AB model of defending although it will be tough to defend for another 90 overs. "It s a tough ask. Asking the guys to bat out 90 overs! It will be Day 5, so you re expecting the wicket to deteriorate even more. But we have the experience and we have the skill. Whatever happens we ll be going down fighting.
"Hashim has laid down his mark. AB s also there and we still have Faf (du Plessis) and Dane Vilas. So we'll definitely be carrying the spirit into tomorrow and trying our best to try and salvage a draw out of this game," said the pint-sized opener.
On personal front, he feels that his 34 off 117 balls has been his toughest examination in his nascent Test career. "That was the toughest piece of batting I ve had to do in my life. I always try to be positive and I always try to look to score runs. When I was put in a situation where the runs weren t the priority but the amount of time you batted out there was the key thing. That was tough for me."
Though India have full 90 overs on Monday to get the visitors out on the pitch that is getting slower and unpredictable with every passing time, it would not be any easy thing for Proteas to keep stonewalling the Indian bowlin
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"If you see any pitch, it starts getting slower and slower. You don't get the desirable pace or bounce from the wicket. This is happening with this wicket also as the pace off the track has gone. Even if you are bowling a bouncer, you are not able to work up the desired pace. It's travelling easy (towards the batsman)," observed Indian pacer Yadav, with a hope that reverse swing will also come into play on the last day.
On their 72nd day in India, the South Africans scored 72 runs in 72 overs. Numerologists would lap up such perfect symmetry and cite it as a proof of divinity in numbers. Something ethereal did unfold at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium on Sunday, but it can’t be wholly captured in mere facts and figures. Remarkable though they are, the numbers in this context are shallow.
They will tell you it was a day of hard graft, but won’t come close to describing the Proteas’ grit. They will suggest it was day when Kotla watched the grass grow and paint dry. Which couldn’t be further from the truth, as it was a most arresting day of Test cricket.
More numbers. A 207-ball-23* will suggest Hashim Amla played a long and patient knock, but it won’t encapsulate the impact it had on you. This epic innings — and to an extent those of AB de Villiers (91-ball 11*) and Temba Bavuma (117-ball 34) — distorted your sense of time and space. You felt one had expanded even as the other had contracted. Given an improbable 481-run target with over five sessions to bat, South Africa lost Dean Elgar before lunch to Ravichandran Ashwin. Amla and Bavuma resumed on the other side of the break having removed the one of the basic essence of cricket: runs. On Sunday, to quote Bavuma, they were batting time. The scoreboard became immaterial. Their focus was on rebuilding their battered reputation, block by block.
Over after over after over, you saw Ashwin (and Ravindra Jadeja) trying to dismiss Amla, only for the bearded and bespectacled batsman to softly pat the ball dead. But with the scorecard barely ticking for long periods, it looked like one interminable delivery. A moment frozen in time.
This illusion of temporal expansion happened due to a spatial contraction of the cricket field. With Amla looking only to defend, the ball very rarely crossed the centre square. At one stage, there were seven players, including the wicketkeeper, around the bat. It seemed as if the vast Kotla ground had shrunk itself into its rectangular core. Consequently, the over-rate shot up. In fact four extra overs were bowled in the scheduled seven hours of play when a normal winter day in north India routinely falls five to six overs short.
It all may sound as boring as watching an inane gif of the forward-defensive on Vine. It wasn’t. There were fascinating mind games and subtle changes in strategy. Having seen that Amla and Bavuma had come with the sole intention stonewalling, Kohli employed his pacers from one end and told them to bowl from around the wicket.
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For him, the other batsmen will have to follow the Amla-AB model of defending although it will be tough to defend for another 90 overs. "It s a tough ask. Asking the guys to bat out 90 overs! It will be Day 5, so you re expecting the wicket to deteriorate even more. But we have the experience and we have the skill. Whatever happens we ll be going down fighting.
"Hashim has laid down his mark. AB s also there and we still have Faf (du Plessis) and Dane Vilas. So we'll definitely be carrying the spirit into tomorrow and trying our best to try and salvage a draw out of this game," said the pint-sized opener.
On personal front, he feels that his 34 off 117 balls has been his toughest examination in his nascent Test career. "That was the toughest piece of batting I ve had to do in my life. I always try to be positive and I always try to look to score runs. When I was put in a situation where the runs weren t the priority but the amount of time you batted out there was the key thing. That was tough for me."
Against
two batsmen who were already in their shell, it was a curious decision
as it negated the chances of getting reverse swing as well as lbw
decisions.
The idea, however, was to create footmarks for Ashwin and Jadeja. “It was a ploy for Ishant and I to come round the wicket in the afternoon session in order to create some roughs for our spinners,” Umesh Yadav said. “We were trying to get the ball to reverse but due to the lack of pace and bounce, we couldn’t. So, it made sense for us to create some help for our spinners, so that at least they can extract something from the pitch.”
It paid off after tea as Ashwin broke the 38-over-long partnership between Amla and Bavuma. The off-spinner first softened the latter with an off-break that spun a great deal after landing in a rough. Soon after he bowled another, tossed up and closer to the off stump line. Bavuma played for turn, but the ball hardly spun this time and crashed into his stumps. It was a knock of great character. The 25-year-old will perhaps go on to play many a big one, but this counterintuitive innings, in only his fifth Test and such tough conditions, will always rank special.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/south-africa-stubborn-after-ajinkya-rahane-ton-helps-india-set-481-run-target/#sthash.q4mKKVNw.dpuf
The idea, however, was to create footmarks for Ashwin and Jadeja. “It was a ploy for Ishant and I to come round the wicket in the afternoon session in order to create some roughs for our spinners,” Umesh Yadav said. “We were trying to get the ball to reverse but due to the lack of pace and bounce, we couldn’t. So, it made sense for us to create some help for our spinners, so that at least they can extract something from the pitch.”
It paid off after tea as Ashwin broke the 38-over-long partnership between Amla and Bavuma. The off-spinner first softened the latter with an off-break that spun a great deal after landing in a rough. Soon after he bowled another, tossed up and closer to the off stump line. Bavuma played for turn, but the ball hardly spun this time and crashed into his stumps. It was a knock of great character. The 25-year-old will perhaps go on to play many a big one, but this counterintuitive innings, in only his fifth Test and such tough conditions, will always rank special.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/south-africa-stubborn-after-ajinkya-rahane-ton-helps-india-set-481-run-target/#sthash.q4mKKVNw.dpuf
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