SA vs IND | 1st Test, Day 4: Elgar stands up tall to India's pace trio to set up cracking final day

On-demand service is not a common phenomenon in Cricket but there are certain cricketers who bring that quality to the table. 

On the day when India needed to lift their game in the fading hours of the fourth day of the first Test against South Africa, their talisman- Jasprit Bumrah, who has been offering on-demand delivery of brilliance put his hands up once again.

Having set a stiff target of 305 runs on a surface that appeared to be tough one to bat for a longer period of time, the tourists were thwarted and denied for most parts of the final session by Proteas skipper Dean Elgar, who once again established his mental toughness and resilience to fight out the tough conditions.

South Africa opted for a heavy roller and their hope of stabilising some of the opened cracks of the surface was fulfilled when Indian pacers could not extract the tennis ball bounce that their pacers Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen extracted.

The Indian bowling attack has always been a battle-hardened unit and their quality was on display once again as they did not let the pressure go away from Proteas batsmen. 

Virat Kohli rewarded Mohammad Shami with a spell with the new ball for his accurate bowling in the first innings and he carried on with the same rhythm to claim a big wicket of Aiden Markram, who could not make up his mind quickly enough to leave an away-going delivery.

Keegan Petersen has looked like a solid batsman for the hosts and he joined his skipper to steady the ship. The duo kept on denying India until Mohammad Siraj found an unplayable delivery that forced him rooted in the crease and found him wanting.

The things appeared to be going in a similar manner as of the first innings as Rassie van der Dussen played a rash shot on the first ball to almost gift his wicket like the first innings. However, he settled quickly to ratify the high praise he gets from the people who follow South Africa cricket. He was extra vigilant around off stump and batted solidly while Elgar was both cautious against wicket-taking deliveries while also being aware of scoring opportunities.

The duo batted with supreme command and carried the side within 30 minutes of the stumps. However, as has been the case for India in all the formats, Kohli brought back Bumrah to produce magic and the final counterpunch of the day. On cue, he delivered with a delivery that jagged back staggeringly towards van der Dussen off stump and the right-hander could not believe the magnitude of the movement and was left bewildered after hearing the disturbance of his stumps.

Bumrah also found his line perfectly well in the last over of the day and castled Keshav Maharaj with a searing yorker that many promising batsmen of the world have not found answers to.

Now, India need six wickets on the final day while the hosts need 211 runs. Elgar is still there to keep Proteas’ hopes alive but what will be tricky for the sides is the weather conditions with 67 per cent of precipitation predicted for the final day of the game. 

Earlier on the day, India lost the advantage once again through a batting collapse as none of their batsmen could convert their starts. All of KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara spent significant time at the crease but none could press on for a big score that could have batted South Africa out of the game. However, their twin collapses in the game have been blessings in disguise for the overall state of the game as more batting from them could have denied the tourists some number of overs to bowl the hosts out.

Virat Kohli was once again guilty of throwing his hands out on a very wide delivery while Pujara could not breach the spell of misfortunes and glanced a leg-stump half volley straight to Quinton de Kock.

Rahane batted with tremendous fluency and looked in great touch as he pulled out some of his vintage shots. However, quickly after those sumptuous shots, he also pulled a short and climbing delivery from Rabada to be dismissed in a manner that has also become a typical aspect of his batting.

The game is well poised for a cracking final day provided the weather god will have other ideas than the ones being predicted by the meteorologists.