India vs South Africa: 2nd Test Day 1 Review: ‘The Indians dominate the South Africans in a game of spin’

India vs South Africa: 2nd Test Day 1 Review: ‘The Indians dominate the South Africans in a game of spin’: A cool weather and a perfect climate; these are the best match-playing conditions and this is the true nature of Bengaluru, the home of the second Test match of the Freedom Series between India vs South Africa. India led by Virat Kohli were coming in with a great win who had ‘turned’ the tables in favour of them and defeated South Africa who tasted a loss in Tests after a very long time and the first loss for Hashim Amla as a captain. They couldn’t adapt to the turning conditions and Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Amit Mishra made merry of the pitch and picked up 19 wickets from their bowling and won the match for India under three days. South Africa who have the ODI series and the T20I series under their belt, need to come back strong and win this Test match and level the series 1-1 as a loss in this game will damage the unbeaten streak held by them where they have not lost an away series in the past 9 years. The two players who know this ground really well from IPL, Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers are on opposite sides and one should wait and watch on how they go about the game. Also AB De Villiers will become the 7^th South African to represent his side for a 100 Tests and for him to play this significant match in his second home Bengaluru is truly special with also BCCI, KSCA and BLR have lined up special programs to mark the occasion. The home crowd hopes for an Indian win but coupled with great knocks by AB De Villiers who’ll have complete support even though he’s in the visitor’s camp.

The toss was won by the Indian skipper and chose to bowl first. It was a good decision considering the moist pitch leading to some bounce in the pitch. This was only the second instance where the captain winning the toss has decided to bowl first in Bengaluru with the last time being way back in 1974. The overcast conditions here might halt the match but we hope that rain won’t spoil play. Stuart Binny came to the playing XI in place of Amit Mishra and Ishant Sharma who was returning after a 1-Test ban replaced Umesh Yadav. Vernon Philander’s injury and Dale Steyn not playing has brought little unrest in the South African Camp. Kyle Abbott and Kagiso Rababa come in the team for them.

The skipper might have misread the conditions a little bit as the pitch didn’t assist the seamers as there was just a little bounce and not much seam movement for them. So in the 8^th over itself, Ravichandran Ashwin was sent into attack the South African team and was rewarded with two wickets in his first over itself and sent back van Zyl for 10 and Faf Du Plessis for a duck and South Africa were left at 15/2. Ashwin entered the record books where he became the only spinner since 10 years to take two wickets in an over in the first innings of a match. Since 2014, the South Africans haven’t been able to post even one hundred-run opening stand. Hashim Amla, who walked in to play, had decided to support Dean Elgar and build a strong foundation for the players to come and allow a score by which their bowlers can give them the lead in the first innings but unfortunately he played one ball from Aaron inside the line and hit his stumps right off. Virat Kohli’s persistence in allowing the expensive Varun Aaron to bowl finally paid off. Ashwin on the other side, continued to bowl really well and truly his off-spinners were troubling the South African batsman. In walked ‘The man of the hundred Tests’ AB De Villiers and the crowd cheered as he walked to the crease. The fans wanted an ironical thing to happen. They wanted AB De Villiers to deliver as well as India to register a win against them here.

After lunch, Elgar who scored 38 swept a ball from Jadeja onto his own wicket and JP Duminy edged one from Ashwin to slip after he struggled scoring 15 runs. AB De Villiers wanted to score but he was losing support from his team mates as South Africa kept on losing wickets in regular intervals. Then walked in David Vilas and supported De Villiers in a 39 run partnership before he chipped one back to Jadeja and AB De Villiers was left helpless. He then took the onus on his own hands and started scoring in all dimensions of the field and showed everybody why he’s Mr.360 and why he’s the best in the business. He looked good to reach the three figure mark before getting dismissed for a very well made 85 which consisted of 11 beautiful boundaries and one stunning six, after a brilliant catch by Wriddhiman Saha who flew to the forward short leg position to make sure India would come back in the match. AB De Villiers also crossed 1000 runs vs India during his innings and is making his 100^th test match memorable. After that Morne Morkel and Kyle Abbott played short innings to ensure South Africa cross 200. There was yet another amazing catch by the home boy Stuart Binny who picked up a catch running back to send back Morne Morkel walking, which caught the attention of the commentators.

Ashwin and Jadeja were with four scalps each and Varun Aaron chipping in with a brilliant wicket of the dangerous Hashim Amla.

27 out of 30 wickets taken by India in this series are by spinners. This tells a tale to both the hosts and the visitors. South Africa are yet to solve the ‘turning’ equation thrown in by the hosts and till they solve that, the batsmen will find it difficult to score well in this match and the games coming ahead.

With 29 overs left in the day, in walked the Indian openers Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan to continue the great form of India today. Even the Indian openers haven’t found much success these days and hopefully they’ll deliver. With Dale Steyn not playing, the bowling will be lead by Morne Morkel.

The innings began with confidence with both the openers bolstering the Indian camp. Shikhar Dhawan finally opened his account in this series after he fell twice for naught in the first test in Mohali. Everything went in India’s favour when they ended the day at 80/0 which included 12 fours and Dhawan scored a confident 45* and Vijay with a patient 28*. Even the fortune favoured them Imran Tahir making a mess of an easy catch given by Murali Vijay after he misjudged the shot. Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay have laid a perfect foundation for the hosts to cash in tomorrow.

In brief, India dominated all the three sessions of the game with only AB De Villiers from the South African camp who looked like taking away the game away from them in the first innings of the day and India remained unbeaten for 80 in their first innings.

India will be looking to open tomorrow and take a comfortable lead whereas the South Africans will be looking to break the opening partnership early and not allow the Indians to take lead.

Tune in tomorrow to see how the teams will fare on the day 2 of the 2^nd Test between India and South Africa at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.

Brief scores

• South Africa: 214 (AB De Villiers 85, Dean Elgar 38, R Ashwin 4/70, R Jadeja 4/50)
• India: 80/0 (Shikhar Dhawan 45, Murali Vijay 28, Imran Tahir 0/9, Kyle Abbott 0/18)