India vs South Africa: 4th Test, Day Two - South Africa's batsmen implode to hand India the advantage
Ajinkya Rahane and Ravichandran Ashwin guided India to the biggest total of the series, before Ravindra Jadeja spun his web around the South African batsmen once again, to give India a 213-run lead at the end of day two of the fourth Test in Delhi.
Rahane, who became the first batsman to score a century in the ongoing Test series, battted beautifully, along with Ashwin, who notched up his sixth Test fifty, to help India reach 334. The Proteas failed to deliver with the bat once again, despite a solid start, as they collapsed from 36-0 to 121 all out, courtesy of Jadeja’s 30 for 5.
India, who began the day on 231/7 added almost hundred runs before lunch. Rahane, who has been at his best so far in the series, not only notched up the maiden hundred in the series, but also his first Test ton in India. He eventually fell for 127, trying to accelerate before lunch.
Ashwin, who played second fiddle until Rahane’s dismissal, then stepped up, as he scored a crucial fifty, to get the score above 300. Although Ashwin and Ishant Sharma fell in the same Kyle Abbott over, India, as it turned out, managed more than enough already.
South Africa’s openers got off to a solid start, as they registered their highest opening partnership of the series, but the fall of Dean Elgar, sparked a South African collapse on a pitch, that was doing nowhere near as much, as the previous Test in Nagpur.
Although the pitch didn’t offer too much assistance, it was a spinner, who was India’s best bowler once again. While Ashwin has been getting all the plaudits so far, the second day belonged to Jadeja, as his five wickets handed India a massive lead.
After Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma had made a solid, if not spectacular start, it was Jadeja who turned the day and the match in India’s favour. He got rid of South Africa’s two best batsmen from the last game, in Hashim Amla and Francois du Plessis.
From then onwards, it was a question of how much AB de Villiers could add before the tail was eventually rattled. And just when he look set for another well-deserved fifty, a fantastic catch by Ishant in the deep, got rid of AB and that was that.
Brief scores:
India 334 (Rahane 127, Ashwin 56; Abbott 5-40) lead South Africa 121 (de Villiers 42; Jadeja 5-30) by 213 runs