"Beautiful line, enough on the pitch and some obliging South African batters" - Sanjay Manjrekar lauds Jasprit Bumrah's fifer

Sanjay Manjrekar has pinned down Jasprit Bumrah's "top-class" five-wicket haul against South Africa to three factors. He noted that the pacer adjusted his line to outside off-stump from the previous Test, extracted more purchase from the Cape Town pitch, and was helped by some "obliging" opposition batters.

Bumrah's seventh Test fifer came just days after the Johannesburg game where he could only pick up one wicket and conceded runs at 3.2 to the over. After that match, Manjrekar said Bumrah was bowling "too straight". In Cape Town, most of his wickets came from an outside off-stump line at an economy rate of just 1.8.

Speaking on the subject to ESPNcricinfo, Manjrekar said:

"Look at Dean Elgar - caught Pujara in the slips; (Keegan) Petersen - caught Pujara, bowled Bumrah; Markram leaving the ball outside the off-stump, it was pitched outside the off-stump which tested another aspect of the South African batters. I was pushing for Ishant Sharma in this bowling attack because I wanted somebody to curb the runs."

He added:

"Bumrah did that role as well as the wicket-taking role. Change of line is the reason, you know, that just created another kind of challenge for the South African batters. And this is a guy who's a five-wicket taker, he's not going to be happy with three. Just bowled a beautiful line, there was enough on the pitch and some obliging South African batters - top-class performance from Bumrah."

Former South African batter Daryll Cullinan, who played over 200 internationals for the country, also lauded Bumrah's performance in the same interaction, saying:

"They got back to the Test line on and about off-stump and he was unrelenting there... I thought he was absolutely brilliant, just the way he was stuck at that, got the wicket to do the sort of work and look at his economy rate - absolutely brilliant! He could have gone too straight, been too aggressive. But in the end of the day look at those figures that's what India were hoping for and they got it from their main strike bowler."

Bumrah's fifer, his second in Cape Town, helped India dismiss the South Africans for 210, 13 runs shy of the visitors' first-innings total. He got brilliant support from Mohammed Shami (2-39), Umesh Yadav (2-64) and Shardul Thakur (1-37). India then took an overall 70-run lead at the cost of both openers by the end of Day 2.

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India need to be at least 250 ahead to feel comfortable against South Africa: Daryll Cullinan

Looking ahead to Day 3, Cullinan said India will need at least a 250-300-run lead to feel comfortable against a South African batting lineup that easily chased 240 in the last Test.

He said the pitch will neither get better nor "dramatically worse", so the bowlers will need some extra cushion. Cullinan added:

"It's a tough one to call but I think they've got to be at least 250, closer to 300 ahead. It's all about the wicket. I couldn't help thinking today there was still movement but was there movement with the older ball? In fact, the movement is being so exaggerated... I can't see the wicket getting better, I can't see it getting dramatically bad [either] but I think to feel confident, from 70 ahead, they've got to push on to another 170, 180. I think that gives them a great opportunity here."

Day 3 of the third Test will kick off at 2:00 PM IST in Cape Town.