South Africa vs India 2018, 2nd Test, SK Turning Point: Virat Kohli's dismissal in 2nd innings
"I don't think we need to panic because of collapses. Whether we are playing five batsmen or six, you still need to apply yourself."
Sadly, India's batsmen did not pay heed to their captain's pre-match advice.
287 was always going to be a daunting target for an Indian team that has been struggling with its own batting frailties, unable to wrest the initiative when required the most.
When Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami, the latter in particular, were tonking the ball with ease, Team India's staunchest fanboys must have lifted their heads out of their palms with the wafer-thin hope of a miraculous chase. The ludicrous theory soon vaporized, with Rohit being at the receiving end of an acrobatic AB de Villiers catch.
However, the die was cast much before, when an in-form Virat Kohli hung back in his crease and saw the ball crash into his pads, right in front of the stumps.
Kohli had tried to set the match up for India in the first innings, scoring a breezy hundred and a half that was matched stroke for stroke by de Villiers. Perhaps the South African's 80 was more impactful than Kohli's highest score in the country.
"We failed to get a good partnership and take a lead. We have let ourselves down. The bowlers have done the job but the batsmen have let the team down."
Kohli did not mince any words while speaking about the inability of his batting partners to pull up their socks and actually grind it out in the middle. However, if Kohli himself would have been able to somehow survive the tough spell in the dying embers of the fourth day, he could have shepherded the chase by rallying the team around him.
At 35-3, the Indian team must have gone back to their hotel with hung heads and drooping shoulders at the end of the fourth day. Cheteshwar Pujara seems to be digging pits with toy spades, not having provided anything substantial in the series, while the absence of Ajinkya Rahane makes the middle-order frail and vulnerable.
The track was slow and low, mimicking some of the Indian tracks the visiting batsmen feast on. In such a scenario, a Kohli special was exactly what could have galvanized India to put their heads into the chase and make a fight of the score.
Murali Vijay was caught napping when an incoming delivery snuck through his defences (or whatever rough-hewn form of it he has been carrying on this tour), as India were given a trailer of what was in store for them. KL Rahul gifted a wicket to Lungi Ngidi first ball, and the second teaser was out.
To conquer his discomfort against swinging deliveries outside off, Kohli has been making a trigger movement prior to the ball being bowled. Against Ngidi, he did the same, shuffling from his third-stump guard (by a step and a half) to the off, in a bid to cover any movement away from him.
While he did manage to cover all the three sticks, he also brought himself into an awkward tangle, as any delivery (including the one that finally dismissed him) that jagged into him, was an open invitation to test his leg-side play. Unfortunately for Kohli, Ngidi's 17th delivery of the innings carried more zing off the surface and shot into his front leg.
Just like the finger from the on-field umpire, India's hopes went up in the air. You could see the tiredness on his face when he came out for the post-match conference.
"I want to leave everything on the field, for my country, for my team. That's the way I play. 150 means nothing right now that we have lost the series. If we had won, even a 50 or a 30 would have mattered more to me. Having not won the game, personal milestones don't matter to me," he said.
If only he could have stuck around to steer India past troubled waters in the fading light on Day 4. Perhaps he and his teammates could have woken up with the hunger to fight and draw the series.