BALANCING ACT AT THE BULL RING ON DAY TWO

India Lead By 58 Runs With Eight Wickets In Hand After Thakur’s 7-Wicket Burst Restricts South Africa

- Dwaipayan.Datta

Will the 30-year-old wait be over in a day or two? Or will the agonizing wait continue? An empty Bullring on Tuesday left it open-ended as wild fluctuations of fortune kept us glued to all that was happening in Johannesburg.

India, in their search of a first series win in South Africa, found an unlikely hero in Shardul Thakur. The under-rated pacer’s career-best 7-61 should have been enough, but this South African team is showing that it won’t go down without a fight. Over good periods of the second day’s play, the Proteas looked to take control, only to see Shardul pegging them back with his intelligent medium-pace bowling.

And now it’s over to India’s old warhorses Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane. After conceding a lead of 27, India lost their openers KL Rahul (8) and Mayank Agarwal (23) early. Things could have spiralled out of control in the last hour of the day with the South African pace quartet breathing down

India Lead By 58 Runs With Eight Wickets In Hand After Thakur’s 7-Wicket Burst Restricts South Africa the throats of the two senior Indian players battling to save their international careers.