The visitors had been wary of the Mohali pitch well before the match even began and that played as much or a greater part in the unravelling
Firdose Moonda in Mohali07-Nov-2015Test cricket does not have the bloodlust of boxing, the contact of rugby and American football or the speed of soccer but it is the most demanding sport around. Players are expected to be at it for six hours a day for five days in succession. Admittedly not all of them are involved all of the time but even just being present for that period take its toll. And that’s not even the hardest part.At its core, Test cricket is a mental game and South Africa were reminded of just how much of a role the mind plays in Mohali. Take nothing away from India’s spinners – especially R Ashwin – but they were not solely responsible for the South Africa’s downfall. Neither was the surface although it was tricky for both sides to bat on. Perhaps the purists have a point when they lament the demise of proper temperament and technique as a result of the glut of limited-overs cricket.Both sets of batsmen seemed to be scrambling too early and too much and South Africa’s squirming began even before the match did. Three days out, Faf du Plessis was disturbingly negative about the surface and what his team expected from it. “The worst,” he said, implying a raging turner, dry, spider-webbed with cracks, unplayable. That one of their senior batsmen was talking this way should have raised alarm bells about South Africa’s state of mind. In the end, du Plessis was done by straight deliveries in both innings. Expecting “the worst”, it seems, can cloud the vision too.South Africa’s other bankers were also out of touch. Hashim Amla is going through a lean run that he can’t seem to break out of – some of it is caused by footwork issues, some by “brainfreezes,” as he put it when discussing getting out in bizarre ways – and AB de Villiers’ first-innings 63 needed some support.If South Africa are to succeed on this tour, at least one of du Plessis, Amla or de Villiers have to come good every innings and if only one of them does, it has to be very good, especially if JP Duminy is not around. The rest of the line-up feed off them. If Dean Elgar, Stiaan van Zyl and Dane Vilas see their seniors baffled, they are unlikely to believe they won’t be. It may not be as simple as that and there are instances of young batsmen stealing the show (think Duminy in Melbourne) but generally, on away tours, one of the big batsmen has go big and in this case, that applies to their temperament too.Some of South Africa’s other players were less alarmist. Dale Steyn spoke about, “the first three days being pretty chilled and then it just speeds up on day four and five,” Dean Elgar suggested something similar about the difficulties of batting later in the match and Simon Harmer looked forward to finally enjoying a more spinner-friendly surface compared to what he is used to back home.They were all right. The game was played in fast-forward from the get-go: 12 wickets fell on the first day, 10 on the second and 18 on the third, so batting was never easy for either side. Thirty-four of the 40 that fell were to spinners, the fourth-highest number of wickets taken by spinners in any match, but not to spin.This was a pitch that demanded concentration and careful thought. The batsmen had to be patient but they also could not get too pinned down or they were likely to make a mistake. Strike rotation was perhaps the most important basic discipline that needed to be applied and South Africa abandoned it as the match went on. They scored just 37 singles in their second innings, compared to India’s 68.The frustration of seeing out dot balls and hoping for boundaries may have led to the errors Amla spoke about. The reality of the unknown may also have contributed its share but South Africa are likely to be harsh on themselves when they assess how they handled foreign conditions with the bat.When they do, they can consider themselves flattered by India’s insistence on preparing this kind of pitch. It tells them India are wary of engaging in a contest where bat and ball are equals, just as South Africa themselves have been in the past when confronted with a team they feared may be stronger than them.In 2010, when India were ranked No.1 and visited South Africa, the first Test was played on a Centurion green mamba that would not have been out of place a little further north in a Waterberg Reserve. The seamers were snipers though the match went to the fifth day due to rain.India may remember that when South Africa tried it again, in the Test that followed in Durban, the plan backfired. India also had seamers who could speak parseltongue and they were able to find their way back into the series. Virat Kohli’s men might do well to treat that as a cautionary tale but, given the gulf they might see between the quality of their spinners and South Africa’s, the pitches are likely to remain the same.Already, they are promising to push home advantage even more. On Saturday, the reported that the Feroz Shah Kotla is expected to be spinner-friendly for the upcoming Ranji Trophy match and quoted a DDCA official saying, “We will have to prepare it according to what the Indian team and the BCCI wants.”It may serve South Africa best if they did not read that.
