Dean Elgar’s South Africa breach India’s fortress Wanderers to level series

In a one-sided finish to what has been a thrilling second Test match at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, South Africa levelled the three-match series against India with a huge 7-wicket victory on Thursday. 

South Africa captain Dean Elgar led his team’s charge towards a historic victory — their first in six matches against India at this venue and their first in last six Tests overall — with a brilliant 96 not out as he masterminded their chase on a tough pitch.

The first two sessions on the fourth day were washed out by incessant rains but the conditions improved late in the afternoon for the umpires to allow play to resume. With a late start at 3:45 PM local time, South Africa and India were given 34 overs of play in which the home team required 122 runs to win and the visitors another 8 wickets to seal the series in their favour.

However, South Africa needed only 27.4 overs to seal the deal in their favour while losing only one wicket in the form of middle-order batsman Rassie van der Dussen, and levelled the series 1-1 with third and final match for the Freedom Series to be played at Newlands, Cape Town from January 11.

The Protea captain Elgar deserved rich praise for the way he batted and shepherded other batsmen around him in a chase which could have been extremely tricky, in the fourth innings on a treacherous pitch with uneven bounce with movement from the surface which the batsmen from both teams could never really predict. 

But apart from Elgar, van der Dussen and South Africa vice-captain Temba Bavuma also played handy knocks of 40 and 23 not out respectively in a winning cause.

With the outfield completely wet, the Indians were bound to struggle with a wet ball. Ravichandran Ashwin opened the attack with Jasprit Bumrah but bowled only two overs before being taken off. India, meanwhile, had started requesting for a change in the ball from the third over of the day itself. The umpires denied them an immediate change but accepted their appeal in the ninth over, following which Mohammad Shami broke through to provide India with their first and only wicket of the day. 

Shami found an edge off the bat of van der Dussen to have him caught in the first slip by Cheteshwar Pujara for 40 from 92 balls, which also included 5 boundaries. Having struggled miserably with the bat so far in the series, van der Dussen not only produced an extremely important knock in his team’s cause but also added 82 runs for the third wicket with Elgar to quell any hopes for India to make a comeback.

The tall South African batsman van der Dussen battled hard with the Indian bowlers, who kept on either beating his bat around the off stump several times, or hit him on the body with the uneven bounce from the surface also troubling him. 

But to his credit, van der Dussen displayed incredible patience and discipline to score vital runs, just like his captain, but more importantly, build a strong partnership with Elgar that laid the foundation for their victory.

After the dismissal of van der Dussen, Bavuma and Elgar did not waste much time in knocking off the remaining runs, putting on a 68-run unbeaten stand for the fourth wicket. Their unbeaten third-wicket association consumed only 83 deliveries, handed South Africa, a team which is in transition, a victory to remember against the world No 1 team.

Elgar was named the Man of the Match for his splendid batting in the second innings — something which he had done unsuccessfully the last time these two teams played in 2018. Back then, Shami took five wicket haul to both South Africa out for 177 chase of 241. In that game, Elgar was left stranded on 86 not out.

With this victory, South Africa now have breached India's fortress at Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg in six matches. India have no one else but themselves to blame, having batted poorly in both the innings of this Test. After being bowled out for a paltry 174 in the second innings of the first Test at Centurion, which India won by a huge margin of 113 runs, the visiting side posted scores of 202 and 266 in the two innings at Johannesburg while also conceded a led of 27 runs in the first innings. 

While KL Rahul was the difference between the two teams at Centurion, India all-rounder Shardul Thakur bagged a record 7/61  wicket haul in the first innings of the Johannesburg Test to keep aside in contention. He also contributed with late and vital runs to push India’s second innings total to 266. 

However, there was no escaping from the fact that India's brittle and out-of-sorts middle-order, consisting of senior batsmen in Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, failed to do its job particularly in absence of the regular captain Virat Kohli who missed this Test due to an upper back spasm. 

Both Pujara and Rahane flopped in the first innings but batted incredibly well in second innings to add 111 runs for the third wicket in only 23-odd overs, while bringing up their respective half-centuries. That said, their contributions were perhaps not enough as India required a big score in either of their endings to put pressure on South Africa.