Jasprit Bumrah seized the day with his terrific double-strike of van der Dussen and Keshav Maharaj towards the end.
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It’s been a very productive day for India keeping the match result in mind. Despite a low 2nd innings score, there was more than enough runs on the board to set a target of 305 for South Africa to chase. Indian batsmen were rattled by the Proteas pace attack. In reply, South Africa started off losing opener Markram very early, before Elgar showed some much-needed resistance. Wickets kept falling at the other end, with Keegan Peterson struggling against Mohammed Siraj, and Jasprit Bumrah knocked over van der Dussen. And just when night watchmen Maharaj and Elgar threatened to stitch together a partnership, Bumrah yorked the former with the penultimate ball of the day to leave South Africa at 94/4 with 211 runs needed to win.
Stumps on Day 4 of the 1st Test.
South Africa end the day on 94/4. #TeamIndia 6 wickets away from victory.
Scorecard – https://t.co/eoM8MqSQgO #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/IgRuammbPo
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 29, 2021
India resumed on day 4 at 16/1 after losing Mayank Agarwal early on the previous day. From there on, the Indian batsmen struggled to get runs and kept losing wickets at frequent intervals. Rishabh Pant was the top scorer with 34 and the rest of the batsmen found it difficult to sustain the Proteas seam attack. Debutant Marco Jansen and Kagiso Rabada each picked up 4 wickets while Lungi Ngidi had 2 of his own. India was all-out for 174.
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In reply, Shami, who excelled with a fifer on day three, got the new ball along with Bumrah, ahead of Siraj. He made it count immediately with a delightful set-up. His first ball to Aiden Markram was full enough for the drive and clipped the outside edge, but it didn’t carry to Rishabh Pant. The second was shorter and seamed away to graze the outside edge once again, but this didn’t carry either, falling short of gully. Having put Markram’s jugement in doubt with the first two balls, he made the incision with the third that veered in and had the opener chopping it onto the wickets.
Up next was Keegan Petersen, who clipped Shami through midwicket and caressed him down the ground for fours, but Siraj came on and dealt him with a set-up of his own. After pinning Petersen just above the knee-roll with an inswinger – it was bouncing over the stumps – Siraj found the outside edge with an outswinger.
Elgar then got together with van der Dussen and briefly repelled India’s attack with a 40-run partnership for the third wicket. Bumrah, however, seized the day with his terrific double-strike of van der Dussen and Keshav Maharaj.
