"India will concede the lead" - Aakash Chopra makes his predictions for Day 2 of the 2nd Test vs South Africa
Aakash Chopra has made his predictions for the second day's play of the Johannesburg Test between India and South Africa.
Team India were bowled out for 202 runs in their first innings at the Wanderers. The hosts reached a score of 35/1 by Stumps on Day 1 and trail the KL Rahul-led side by 167 runs.
In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra predicted that South Africa will take a slender first-innings lead. He said:
"I feel India will concede the lead. Runs are still left, you have scored 202, the opposing team have also lost one wicket for 35 runs. But I feel South Africa will take a slim lead, it could be 15-25 runs."
The cricketer-turned-commentator expects Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah to scalp the majority of the South African wickets. Aakash Chopra elaborated:
"Shami and Bumrah will together account for seven or more wickets today itself. Shami has already taken one. Seven or more wickets of this innings can go in these bowlers' names. Siraj is injured, I really hope he is not seriously injured, but he left the field limping a little and Shardul Thakur finished the over."
Top class bowling by Shami and Bumrah. As fine an opening spell as you can see: probing batsmen with high skill and hostility
Mohammed Siraj appeared to have suffered a hamstring injury while bowling his fourth over late on the first day. The Indian team will hope that the speedster can take the field on the second morning.
"South Africa will be all out" - Aakash Chopra
Aakash Chopra expects a flurry of wickets on the second day as well. He reasoned:
"My third prediction is that South Africa will be all out. The match will move fast because there is pace in this pitch. The scoring rate is not slow on a pitch that has pace, the match keeps moving forward, wickets keep falling and the runs are also scored. Something along those lines is what I am expecting."
The 44-year-old also feels that Marco Jansen will make a decent contribution with the bat. Aakash Chopra predicted:
"I feel Marco Jansen has already taken wickets, he could have picked up a five-wicket haul, but he will score more than 20 runs. He is a proper all-rounder, he is that sort."
If Marco Jansen was a company listed on the stock exchange, I would be investing a heck load of money in the stock for the next 15 years.
Lad has got everything to be the best. Tall, fast, left-arm, swing, batting potential, can extract bounce anywhere. Crazy potential.
Jansen showed in the first Test that he is a handy customer with the bat. The bowling all-rounder, who scored 32 runs across two innings in the Boxing Day Test, has a decent first-class batting average of 22.93.