PTI | Guwahati
India stared down the barrel as a ruthless South Africa slowly tortured the home side by posting an improbable victory target of 549 that has all but ensured the visitors’ first series triumph here in 25 years at the end of the fourth day of the second Test.
After South Africa declared their second innings at 260 for 5, India were reeling at 27 for 2 at stumps on Tuesday, having lost openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (13) to Marco Jansen and KL Rahul (6) to Simon Harmer.
Sai Sudharsan (2 batting) and night-watchman Kuldeep Yadav (4 batting) were at the crease but it will take a herculean effort from the remaining batters to save the game on the final day and avoid the ignominy of a 0-2 whitewash.
The only saving grace for them could be the fact that light fades quickly in this part of the world after 3:45 pm and not more than 80 odd overs have been possible on any of the past four days. Head coach Gautam Gambhir will certainly prefer a 0-1 series defeat over a 0-2 result which would be the second series debacle at home against a SENA nation in the past 12 months.
Tristan Stubbs (94 off 180 balls), who missed out on a half-century in the first innings by a solitary run, this time fell short of a Test ton by only six runs.
Secondly, the more time Proteas spent batting on the fourth day, stronger became the chances of the red soil track crumbling on the
fifth day.
On the fourth day, the reigning World Test Champions had two targets. First was to set a target that would be virtually out of reach.
Once Stubbs became Ravindra Jadeja’s (4/62 in 28.3 overs) fourth victim, skipper Temba Bavuma declared the second innings having knocked the stuffing out of the Indian team by making them bowl for 78.3 overs.
Stubbs enjoyed a 101-run stand for the fourth wicket with Tony de Zorzi (49) and another 82 for the fifth wicket with Wiaan Mulder (35 not out). This was after a 50-plus opening stand between Ryan Rickleton (28) and Aiden Markram (35).
