South Africa were trailing by 320 runs with eight wickets in hand at stumps on Day 3 at the New Wanderers Stadium. After the 222-run partnership between Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli tipped the balance in India’s favour, the visitors pushed the hosts on the back foot, leaving them to scale a 458-run target. At close of play, Alviro Petersen was batting on 76 with Faf du Plessis on 10.
Earlier, after a watchful start to the day for about an hour in the morning, India lost four wickets for 74 runs in the morning session. The dominant partner in the third-wicket partnership, Cheteshwar Pujara, was the first to return to the pavilion. Attempting to cut Jacques Kallis, the No.3 batsman top-edged to the wicketkeeper and departed after making 153. Wickets then fell in a cluster for India. Rohit Sharma was the next to be sent back. A Kallis delivery stayed low after hitting a crack on the fourth-day pitch and disrupted the batsman’s stumps.
Kohli was the next to walk back to the dressing room in the next over. Attempting to cut JP Duminy past the ‘keeper he was caught by AB de Villiers, bringing to end a chanceless and patient innings four runs short of a well-deserved century. Ajinkya Rahane and Mahendra Singh Dhoni then added 31 runs until the former edged Duminy to first slip, leaving India on 358 for six. With the Dhoni on 16 and the visitors leading by 394, lunch was called.
Ravichandran Ashwin then came out to bat with Dhoni post lunch. But after adding seven runs, he scooped Vernon Philander to Faf du Plessis at cover. And 15 runs later, Dean Elgar took a good catch running towards deep-point to remove the India captain off Philander.
The tailenders then made merry as they added runs to take India’s lead past 450. Zaheer Khan led the charge. The pacer hit the only two sixes of the match so far. He lofted Imran Tahir and later Dale Steyn over extra cover to draw some cheer from the spectators. He was involved in a 21-run stand with Ishant Sharma and then added 16 with Mohammed Shami. Both his partners fell to Tahir, while Zaheer remained unbeaten on 29 off 31 balls. While Ishant was trapped leg-before, a googly disrupted Shami’s stumps to call curtains on India’s second innings for 421.
Chasing the stiff target, South Africa got off to a shaky start. Zaheer Khan charging in tested the batsmen with his length. Graeme Smith survived a half-chance off the pacer while still on one. But he then helped Alviro Petersen lay a foundation as they negotiated the visitors’ attack. Scoring more briskly than his captain, Petersen brought up his 50 off 84 balls with seven boundaries. Smith too worked to shape his innings. However, after doing the hard yards, he ran himself out, ending the opening stand for 108. A direct hit by Rahane saw the SA captain depart for 44.
With the home team still 350 runs away from the target, Hashim Amla joined Petersen to take the innings forward and help keep the team in the fray. But a short-pitched delivery from Shami dislodged Amla’s bails. du Plessis was then promoted up the order to replace the No.3 batsman. But with Petersen leading the way, runs were flowing at a steady pace for the home team.
With light becoming a factor and the umpires bringing out the light meter, Dhoni brought in Murali Vijay to bowl off-spin along with Ashwin. And then the Indian skipper handed the gloves to Virat Kohli and brought himself on to ensure that India finished the quota of overs for the day. While he took back the gloves to keep to Ashwin, he handed them back to Kohli as he bowled from the other end. With time playing factor, first the captain and then Kohli kept wicket without pads.
It was the first time in the history of the game that ‘keepers from both teams bowled in a Test match.
Negotiating the India attack, Petersen and du Plessis took SA to 138 for two in an unbroken 20-run partnership by the end of day’s play.
