The first day of the 3rd Test between South Africa and India at the Wanderers saw 11 wickets falling. The track had a tinge of green and had some very visible cracks that did unleash some naughty tricks through the course of the day.
Advertisement
There was considerable seam movement for the bowlers and thus Virat Kohli’s decision to bat first was put under scrutiny. But keeping those cracks in mind, Kohli wanted to avoid batting 4th on this track.
Former Indian skipper, Sourav Ganguly, heavily criticised the Wanderers track, deeming it unfit for batsman to play proper cricket on.
“To play Test cricket on this surface is unfair …saw it in NZ in 2003 …batsman have minimum chance …ICC should look into it,” tweeted Ganguly.
With the track spitting venom, no Indian batsman looked quite assured on it, excpet probably Virat Kohli and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. Cheteshwara Pujara did hang around, playing a gritty knock, but he too was lucky to have survived some very close LBW calls.
Kohli’s calculated aggression helped India get some runs on the board, but from the looks of it, 187 seems a little too less in the first innings, especially when you know that a result is guaranteed on this track.
Pujara though feels that India have a very good chance, as 187 on this track is more like 300 on the board.
Kohli would be hoping that his seam bowlers can extract the same kind of movement that the South African bowlers were able to and knock the Proteas for something less than 150.
Match situation
South Africa are presently 6/1 trailing India by 181 runs. Rabada was sent in as the night watchman last night, after Markram edged one through to the keeper from Bhuvi.
