Who here was able to watch the Day3 proceedings ? (I miss out because I live in stupid Eastern Std. Time area
). How good were Kohli and Pujara, really ? Did the pitch ease out in the 3rd session or they simply wore down the Saffers' bowling attack and then made them err from their plans ? I ask because 1) I want to know if the pitch really is easing out or not, and what would then be a decent target? 2) I am still shell shocked at the brilliance of Kohli Pujara and Vijay
I am on central time but I'm on vacation so I got to watch the entire partnership between Pujara and Kohli. The two of them left the ball beautifully on both line and length, and never changed their approach, which was to punish the bad balls and take the runs when available. I guess the pitch has eased up a little, but there were still enough deliveries that kicked up off a length and Steyn consistently bowled in the 140 kmph range (no one else did, though, Philander and Kallis were in the 130s and sometimes 120s).
South Africa were hurt by the loss of Morkel in that third session. Philander and Steyn had already bowled quite a bit and Smith had to rely on Kallis and the change bowlers for a lot more overs than he probably intended. Hell, AB de Villiers bowled the last over before tea! He even got one to swing in A LOT! I thought both Steyn and Philander bowled well enough, and Kohli and Pujara mainly treated Steyn as the major threat and looked to play him off. Kohli waved and missed at a couple outside his off stump, especially twice in one Philander over, but other than that, they were solid.
South Africa just don't have the quality of spin needed to trouble our batsmen. Imran Tahir was pretty terrible, and bowled either long hops or fulltosses, all of which were punished. The pitch didn't aid the spinners at all, at least I don't remember any ball turning appreciably. Smith was caught in a Catch-22, because the match situation dictated that he had to set defensive fields, and so couldn't have any catchers looking to get the wickets he needed to stem the flow of runs. Pujara shifted gears in that session and Kohli was as solid as ever. I think they took pretty much every single on offer and ran well. The only chance was a straightforward caught-and-bowled to Tahir's left when Pujara was 51, but he dropped that.
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Not our problem Philander, absolutely not our problem!!! And don't even talk up the typical conspiracy theory of the BCCI buying CSA and asking them to prepare a pitch like this!! With both boards in a tussle over Lorgat, the last thing on earth that CSA would do is instruct the groundsman to prepare an Indian pitch.
And this pitch has not been an Indian pitch at all. It has provided help to the fast bowlers by giving good pace and bounce. And yet, its good for strokemaking batsman. If a good wicket is one where the Indian batsmen always should fail, then we better start changing our mindset on what good wickets are.
Thank you! This needs to be stated before the likes of War grab onto this thread and start taking the credit away from this performance. I don't think this pitch favors India, in that there is still bounce (remember Kohli's first scoring shot was an edge that went over the keeper's head) that the Morkel-less South Africa could not extract, and there is lateral movement that was extracted by Steyn, Philander, and Kallis. I think they just didn't bowl enough challenging deliveries and their stamina definitely flogged in the last session as Pujara and Kohli just ground them down. I didn't see any evidence that this pitch is going to offer any real assistance to spin apart from the odd deviation in bounce. Consider that from the point where India were 93/2, South Africa produced a grand total of two chances in the next 44 overs and took neither: Kohli's edge went over ABdV and Pujara's return catch was dropped.
I think South Africa underestimated the guts and determination that was expected from this Indian batting order (and frankly, I think, so did most of us), and today they ran into two very adroit batters who were willing to marry that skill to a lot of ticker.
