After Elgar-Jansen stand, Kohli left as the boy on the burning deck as SA pacers run amok.
Amidst the ruins that went by the name of the Indian batting at SuperSport Park, Virat Kohli stood alone. His head slumped, his eyes blank, his movements frozen, his mind unable to process the rapid unravelling, his colleagues scattered astray like a loft of pigeons upon a gunshot, as India stumbled to an innings-and-32-run defeat. A veteran of 111 Tests, even he would struggle to recollect a capitulation of such flaky, abysmal nature, where they displayed little skill or courage to fight on, where they were drab, disjointed and directionless. Kohli alone raged against the dying light, against the darkness that had shrouded his team, with a delectable 76, but he was alone and helpless.
In three days, the quest for the final frontier fell apart, the elusive shore would remain seductively distant. Worse, this time, they did not reach anywhere in the vicinity of the shore, shipwrecked in the middle of the ocean, sunk tracelessly. It was like them equipping and desiring to scale a peak and then huffing and puffing at the base camp itself.
Cape Town, the venue of the next Test, would give them time to meditate under the magnificent Table Mountains. Until they reach the tip of Africa, hollowness and not regret would seize and shred them.
The usual when-and-where-it-all-went-wrong probe would hit empty notes. Because a lot went wrong, and went wrong fast. Test-match days in South Africa can progress rapidly, a reason a lot of Tests don’t see a fifth day. The moment South Africa mustered a lead of 163 on a track that could progressively deteriorate, the end notes of the game had begun to chime. To salvage even a draw from this game seemed tough. But it was not a graveyard of wickets as someone who would see the scorecard without watching the game would assume.
There were good balls. This is South Africa; this is Centurion; this is Test cricket. There would be good balls. But Rohit Sharma alone perished to a semi-devilish ball. The delivery from Kagiso Rabada was a bolter; a rhyme tuned to a note-perfect beat. The line, angle, length, the nip away, every facet was perfectly measured. The rest of the batsmen were largely their own agents of chaos, victims of their own incompetence.
Shubman Gill, touted the brightest young talent in the world, showed he is still a work in progress in this format, his dismissal bearing from naivety as much as vanity. He had spanked a few fours off Marco Jansen, but at this level, in seaming conditions, all it takes is a ball. He was playing the bowler and not the ball, and played all around a staple full ball to get bowled.
Yashasvi Jaiswal, dropped off the first ball of the innings, discounted the unnerving bounce of the surface. His inflexibility to move his hands away from the leaping ball would continue to be exploited.
A valiant 76 by Virat Kohli showed why this format is the ultimate test!
The very innings that made every 🇮🇳 believe till the end 😍
Will he continue his form in the next test as well?
Tune-in to #SAvIND 2nd Test
JAN 3, 12:30 PM | Star Sports Network#Cricket pic.twitter.com/KpH9s53znc— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 28, 2023
His Mumbai teammate Shreyas Iyer has the shots to make runs even in hostile conditions, but might not possess the bloody-mindedness. He drove loosely at a good-length Jansen ball soon after the tea break. A few balls earlier, he had seen the slips-man dropping a simple catch, off an edge that resulted from his trying to reach out for a wide ball. Counter-attacking is a wise tactic, but not when the circumstances demand to support a senior batsman in twinkling, determined form. It was the moment to glean from the doctrine of patience; but instead Iyer chose the manual of self-destruction.
Procession continues
Such heady implosions could spread like a highly-contagious malaise. Even the usually game-sensible KL Rahul could not resist the temptation to drive at a full ball from Nandre Burger that deviated a wee bit when it made contact with his bat. Again, the drive was loose and tentative, away from the body. At 96 for 5, and soon 105 for 7, Rohit Sharma’s men knew the end was imminent. Only that, it came soon, sparing them from a long suffering. India’s second innings resistance lasted merely 34.1 overs.
A feeling worse than losing the game was the consciousness that they would lose the game. India let this feeling stew them in the first session itself. When the morning began, India were not out of the game yet. A stream of wickets in the morning would bring them back into the contest. South Africa’s lead was, after all, a meagre 11. And South Africa would bat last with a specialist batsman less.
After a great World Cup with the ball, #MarcoJanses showed his prowess with the bat, helping #SouthAfrica stretch their lead to 163.
How will #TeamIndia respond with the bat?
Tune-in to #SAvIND 1st Test,
LIVE NOW | Star Sports Network pic.twitter.com/zd6wc4BOhg— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 28, 2023
But India lost their belief in less than an hour. Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah did bowl with heart and skill, but without fortune. But rather than persisting, they whined about their lack of luck and resigned to their fate even before the match had drifted away from them. The energy on the field dissipated; the bowling turned flaccid, leaked boundaries in bounty. They waited for a moment of inspiration; a kiss of life. But nothing arrived.
Imagination deserted; ideas struck woefully late, drawing serious concerns over their planning and home work. Dean Elgar has a weakness against short-pitched bowling from over the stumps. He would succumb to the leg-side short-ball ploy. But by that time, Elgar had scored 185 runs. They persisted with this method, but Jansen would plunder more runs. To endure a poor day of cricket was excusable, but to experience two successive bad days for a world-class team is lamentable.
This Team Though 😍🇿🇦
A Fairytale ending at SuperSport Park for The Dean🧚♀️ #WozaNawe #BePartOfIt #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/w7N89WkHyu
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) December 28, 2023
Often, teams make good use of overnight breaks. The players themselves would get a better perspective of what went wrong, the video analysts and coaches would share their inputs too. But India did not take the hard lessons of Day Two. They kept repeating the same foibles, like running on repeat mode. It was baffling, as over the last decade India have built a reputation of fighting back from crises, bouncing back strongly to reverse the tide. But this time, they stood frozen, letting the waves of ineptitude swallow them.
At the presentation ceremony, a devastated Rohit had neither the heart nor the words to sum up the reasons for the defeat. He spat out platitudes: “Not good enough.” “We didn’t adapt well.” “Bowlers, they haven’t played much here.” He vouched to make a comeback in Cape Town. History supports them too — in absolute duress, they have summoned the belief to make stirring comebacks. But the final frontier would remain unconquered, the shores of Africa continue to seductively elude India.
Source:indianexpress.com