In Guwahati, on the second day of the second Test, the Indian team’s think tank’s stand was vindicated—thanks to South Africa—after Senuran Muthusamy, with his maiden Test century and Marco Jansen, with a career-best 93, all but batted India out of the game.
With 489 first-innings runs on the board, and not scored at a Twenty20 clip, the balance of runs and time elapsed is stacked in South Africa’s favour. From here, it takes something exceptional for India to win; a hard push and some luck for the Proteas to make it 2-0, and neither side straying far from the median for a draw.
India had begun the second day ahead, but they may not have anticipated the stodgy resistance that Muthusamy and Kyle Verreynne put on first up. In modern cricket, it is rare to see a pair so unperturbed by the lack of runs. They blocked and nudged, left the ball alone and even padded it, but put wicket preservation above all else.
Verreynne made only 45, but had stayed at the crease for nearly three hours. When Jansen came to bat, Muthusamy had 67 to his name and had taken his time getting there. But a combination of India attempting to buy a wicket and the risk of a collapse looming prompted Muthusamy to change gears.
The frustration that steadily built for India was only made worse by the fact that Jansen was in no mood to change his natural game. Swinging hard, Jansen clattered seven sixes in his 91-ball 93.Muthusamy, who traces his roots to Nagapattinam in southern Tamil Nadu, began cricket as a batsman, with Sri Lanka’s Kumar Sangakkara an unusual choice of idol for someone born in Durban. As he went through the ranks, Muthusamy developed as a bowler and in even higher cricket, he realised that his batting would have to deliver if he wanted to bowl slow left-arm on home pitches.Muthusamy’s 109 came in a minute less than five hours, an effort any top-order specialist batsman would be proud of.
“It was a really special moment (to get to three figures) in front of this full house. I’m just glad that I could contribute to the team and really put some runs on the board in the first innings, which is always important,” Muthusamy told the broadcasters at the end of the day’s play. “It (plan) was just to build partnerships and to really try and extend the innings and then score runs in between.”
That South Africa came out on the second day knowing that time was as important as runs is a return to Test cricket as it was traditionally played. In this thinking, a team first makes itself safe, then looks for ways to win, while always remembering that a draw is a very real option. More recently, teams have more or less cut out the draw at home, risking all to the point of defeat in the pursuit of victory. South Africa could also do this, as they have a 1-0 lead, and it is up to India to do all the running to square the two-game series.
South Africa’s lower order, their allrounders, made the difference between a decent score and one from which no visiting team has lost a Test in India before.
India have put their faith in the same template, but if they paused to think about how they brought balance into this eleven there are hints at why they could not force things. Nitish Kumar Reddy adds batting, and Washington Sundar gives enough with the ball, but neither is as much of a threat as Axar Patel, who sat out to keep the eleven in the form that the team likes.
When Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and R Ashwin all exited in a short period of time, there was an expectation that a period of transition would follow. But, this has turned out to be a transition of thinking, of mindset, as much as skills and temperament, runs and wickets.
BRIEF SCORES
SA 489 in 151.1 overs (Muthusamy 109, Jansen 93; Yadav 4 for 115) lead India 9/0 in 6.1 overs (Jaiswal 7 batting, KL Rahul 2 batting) by 480 runs
