Eden Gardens pitch leaves batters in a spin

A wild second day at Eden Gardens, ended with South Africa holding a lead of 63 runs with just three second innings wickets in hand on Saturday.

India and South Africa combined to score 245 runs on day two for the loss of 15 wickets as the Kolkata surface grew increasingly difficult for batting. Balls kept low and off the same length deliveries tickled the batters’ ribs, while the spinners had deliveries exploding out of the surface, making judgment of bounce difficult, while degrees of spin were impossible to forecast.

Some deliveries also stopped after pitching, with one such ball from the crafty Ravi Jadeja ending Aiden Markram’s stay at the crease. At first it looked like a soft dismissal, but a side-on slow-motion review showed just how much the pace of the delivery changed as the Proteas opener tried a sweep.

Had he connected properly, the ball would have passed short leg quickly. Instead, after stopping in the surface, a little extra bounce found the top edge with Dhruv Jurel taking a good leaping catch under the helmet.

It was that kind of day for the batters. South Africa ended it on 93/7, with Temba Bavuma’s unbeaten 29 an excellent exhibition of patience and skill, given the conditions he faced during his hitherto 78 ball innings.

Despite the difficulties of the surface, there will be a couple of South African batters who will not be popular among their teammates. Top of that list is Kyle Verreynne, whose choice of shot — a hard sweep — and execution thereof was awful, leading to him losing his middle stump to Axar Patel.

While Marco Jansen’s dismissal to a similar stroke is also deserving of criticism, in his case it was a shot in keeping with a more attacking mindset that had included him hitting Axar for six shortly after he’d survived bagging a pair thanks to a television review.

Verreynne had actually been playing well with the straight bat, so to swing so wildly across the line was not in keeping with what he was trying to do.

The rest of the South African second innings involved hoping for survival against the Indian bowlers and in the case of Wiaan Mulder, Tony De Zorzi, Ryan Rickelton and Tristan Stubbs, those prayers sadly weren’t answered. All got deliveries that were impossible to defend against with Jadeja, who’d earlier scored 27, going past 4,000 Test runs in the process, finishing with 4/29 from 13 overs.

The pitch was the major talking point of the second day. In commentary Ravi Shastri described it as an “ordinary track” while on social media former England captain Michael Vaughan, said it was “awful”.

Given how last year’s series with New Zealand unfolded — which India lost 0-3, on pitches which spun prodigiously, making batting a lottery — the Eden Gardens surface is certainly not what India would have wanted.

As he showed in Pakistan, Simon Harmer also thrives in these conditions and based on the impact he made, the decision not to start with him at the beginning of the day was the wrong one by the tourists.

Bowling from the same end that Jasprit Bumrah took five wickets in the Proteas’ first innings — and where Jadeja was successful on Saturday — Harmer had the ball gripping and ripping finishing with 4/30 from 15 overs.

Before Harmer was introduced South Africa had barely troubled the Indians who went from their overnight score of 37/1 to 75 and looked like they would take firmer control of the match. But just like South Africa, who lost 10/102, India’s first innings became a journey through a mine-field as they lost 9/114 to finish with a first innings total of 189 — a lead of 30 runs.

Four of their batters made 20 or more, but KL Rahul’s 39 is the highest score in the Test, reflecting just how difficult batting has been.

It won’t get easier, and though South Africa’s target for a lead is 150, they’ll be happy to reach 120 from their current position, which would still make for an uncomfortable fourth innings chase for the home team.