Two days into the Nagpur Test, South Africa are already staring down a dark barrel. After their catastrophic 79 all-out in the first innings, they now face a target of 310 on a turning pitch with the Indian spinners waiting like predators.
According to South Africa’s coach, Russell Domingo, with 278 runs behind and eight wickets in hand at stumps on Day-two, the only wise thing for the batsmen to do would be to go in with the intention to score runs rather than survive.
“I think it has been shown that if you just sit there and look to absorb, without trying to score, you will get a ball that will get you out,” Domingo said. “The guys who have got runs have looked to score. We are going to look to score tomorrow, because there is no way that we will block out for three days.
South Africa’s batting has fallen short on all occasions right since the first Test. But getting dismissed for 79 was a new low for them as the pair of R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja left their batsmen clueless. India, on the other hand, managed scores of 215 and 173 in their two innings, which elongated the string of low scores in this series.
While Domingo admitted his relatively inexperienced batting line-up has struggled against the Indian spinners, he also pointed out the overall low-scoring sequence in the series.
“We know we haven’t batted to our ability, but it’s damn tough to bat out there,” he said. “It shows in one Indian player scoring over 50 in this series, and that is Murali Vijay. AB has scored two half-centuries, and that’s it. Although we haven’t batted well, India have scored 100 runs more than us. 100 runs is a lot of runs, but it isn’t a lot of runs, if that makes sense. So we haven’t batted well, but conditions are not easy, especially with the quality of the Indian bowlers.”
Observing the difference between the Indian and the Proteas spinners, Domingo said, “Consistency. I think the Indian spinners have landed the ball more consistently than our spinners and asked questions for a longer period of time.
“We have landed the ball in good areas for two or three overs, and they have landed the ball in good areas for eight or nine overs. We have beaten the bat and given away the cheap single, and they haven’t. That has been the difference between the two sets of spinners.”
