Stand-in skipper Rishabh Pant impresses with captaincy, puts India on brink of victory

At tea of Day 2, with South Africa one down in second innings for 18 and their deficit whittled down to 12 runs, the Indian team thinktank may have been a bit worried even though the pitch on Day 2 of first Test in Kolkata was supporting the spin bowlers.

They had lost Shubman Gill to neck injury, the skipper could not bat in first innings and he was not there to lead.

But his deputy Rishabh Pant stepped in well and guided India towards victory with some inspirational leadership that began post tea when he brought in Ravindra Jadeja in place of Kuldeep Yadav, who had taken a wicket just before tea.

The first Jadeja wicket was a gift from Markram who tried to swipe at a ball and was caught by an alert and upraised Dhruv Jurel at short leg. South Africa were still trailing by five runs.

Jadeja then had Wiaan Mulder by one that kicked up and turned sharply. Importantly, the edge coming off that was collected beautifully by a sharp Pant, who raised his gloves on his right side quickly to collect the ball. The Proteas were just eight ahead and three down.

Toy de Zorzi arrived at the crease and reverse wept the first ball to third man for a double but then was surprised by one that bounced sharply to his thighs via a braise on his gloves. It was again held by Jurel. South Africa were 40 for four, effectively 10/4.

Pant impressed with his wicketkeeping. There were some great takes including one from either Axar Patel of Jadeja (can’t really recall) that spun square and he had to stretch his hands sideways to grab the catch.

Tristan Stubbs played inside the line and was beaten to have his off-stump clipped with the Proteas just 30 ahead while Kyle Verreyne, who looked like settling the innings and adding 15 with skipper Temba Bavuma, who looked the most impressive batsman on either side, fell to impatience that resulted in a poor wild slog.

At the end of the day, both Verreyne and Markram will have to take a major share of the blame.

Marco Jansen hit a six but couldn’t stay on as Kuldeep Yadav got him.

It was Pant’s insistence that got Yadav to bowl in the rough outside the batsmen’s off-stump. The left-arm wrist spinner was bowling at the stumps throughout but Pant requested, “KD, bas do ball daal de idhar se, please. Himmat rakhke…rough pe daalni hai bas (KD, please bowl these last two balls there in the rough. Have some courage. You just have to bowl in the rough).”

Kuldeep Yadav responded by asking which ones: Stock delivery or the googly.

Pant asked him to bowl one regular wrist spinner and one googly.

The second one saw Jansen go for a wild slog and give the edge to first slip KL Rahul.

Pant, like everyone else, had read Jansen’s intention but knew what to do to get him out.

At the end of Day 2’s play, South Africa were 93/7, just 63 ahead of India.

The Proteas had scored 159 in first innings while India responded with 189.

Tags : Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, India, South Africa, Guwahati