By: Drcricket7 Staff
The Bangalore pitch had little bit of assistance for both spinners and pacer, but by no means it was a rank turner like we saw in the 1st Test in Mohali.
There was turn and bounce for spinners, but it was very much playable, and the pitch demanded application that was missing when South Africa were batting.
Both Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin spun their web in the Bangalore, taking four wickets apiece, while pacer Varun Aaron bowled a peach of a delivery to get rid of Hashim Amla.
It was again AB de Villiers, who stood tall against the Indian spinners, and played a gritty knock for South Africa in his landmark Test at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
We all know what he is capable of doing even when the odds are against him. And so, when he took his guard against India in the 2nd Test, it wasn’t an exception.
AB de Villiers, playing his 100th Test for South Africa, made a hard-fought 85 when the wickets were falling at regular intervals from the other end.
In the end, the touring side had to bow down to the consistency of Indian spinners – Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin – as they could only manage to score 214 in the first innings.
In reply, when the stumps were drawn, India were position strongly at 80/0 without losing any wicket, with openers Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay in the middle.
Earlier, India Test captain Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to field first. He dropped leg-spinner Amit Mishra and inducted local boy Stuart Binny, who was given the new ball along with Ishant Sharma.
In the end, India bowlers justified Virat Kohli’s decision on a pitch that had a bit of moisture and restricted South Africa to a paltry total on a pitch that had no demons.
But AB de Villiers was the only one from South Africa, who kept things together for the touring side, as was after all playing in a known territory, Bangalore’s Chinnaswamy stadium, from where he represents his IPL team.
Like he manufactures shots in the shorter and shortest versions of the game, he did something like this against the Indian bowlers.
But AB de Villiers brilliance came to a grinding halt when Ravindra Jadeja got him out when he was just 15 runs short of yet another Test hundred. India were again right back into the game.
Like Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin too kept things tight from one end and took wickets at regular intervals.
The best image of the day was the dismissal of South Africa Test captain Hashim Amla off pacer Varun Aaron when the stumps went cartwheeling.
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