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After being bowled out for their lowest total against India in Tests, South Africa opened the bowling with Morne Morkel, who surprised everyone by trying to spin the ball before lunch on day two of third Test against India in Nagpur.
Starting on 11/2 in response to India’s 215, the day got off to the worst possible start for the hosts, as Dean Elgar dragged an innocuous delivery from Ravichandran Ashwin onto the stumps in the first over of the day.
From then onwards, it was a procession by the Indian spinners, as they made the most of the help being offered by the pitch and played on the visiting batsmen’s mind by bowling probing lines and forcing them to play as much as possible.
Once Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers, South Africa’s two most experienced batsmen, departed in the space of two overs, the Proteas task of overhauling the Indian total turned from improbable to almost impossible.
By the time AB returned a simple return catch to Ravindra Jadeja, the score was 12/5 and the visitors were still four runs away from avoiding the follow-on. Although any fears of them not doing so was alleviated by Faf du Plessis’ four, they still had a mountain to climb.
Once du Plessis departed, with the score at 35, it was a question of how much longer the Proteas could delay the inevitable. Had Virat Kohli held onto a simple catch at slip when JP Duminy was on 13, the Proteas might have struggled to cross 50.
As it was, Duminy top scored for the visitors, but the Proteas could still only manage 79, conceding a massive lead of 136.
When India came out to bat for four overs before lunch, they were in for a surprise. Not only did Morkel open the bowling, he was also trying to make the most out of the conditions, by trying to spin the ball.
Here is a video of his delivery to Shikhar Dhawan before lunch.
(Video Credit: BCCI Twitter)
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