In a match that ended well within three days and no team crossed 200 across the four innings combined, the undoubted batting hero was South Africa captain Temba Bavuma. The skipper was the only player from both teams to cross 50, and finished South Africa’s second innings unbeaten on 55, with his half century the difference between the two sides in the end result as the visitors won by 30 runs. Head coach Shukri Conrad, terming Bavuma one of the best in the world, explained why he succeeded where almost every one else failed.
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“Having our best player (Bavuma) back brings a calmness. In the last 18-24 months he has been one of the best players in the world and he showed that again,” Conrad told reporters after the famous win on Sunday, as reported by Reuters.
“An innings where he was clear in how he wanted to do it and went against the grain of everyone else. That was the difference between the two sides. He was comfortable that if he stuck to his gameplan, which was that he will get beaten by balls on the outside, but as long as he is not beaten by balls on the inside, he will bat through.”
Bavuma himself attributed his fine innings to being clear in his mind and solid in defence. “Look, I’m a guy who always backs my defence. I think my game is that simple. I try to play around my defence,” said Bavuma. His 44-run eighth wicket partnership with Corbin Bosch became match defining as it extended their overall lead past 100 and set India a 124-run target on a deteriorating pitch. “This morning, like I said, I thought it was a better wicket this morning. It would have been nice on our side if we had wickets. I think we would have been able to get more than just the 125-run lead.”
With the pitch coming under the scanner, with 38 wickets falling in 8 sessions, Conrad said there was an element of surprise in how much turn and bounce there was from the start. “We thought the wicket would (turn) on day one, but we did not bargain for as much turn and bounce, that threw both sides,” he said, adding the victory, South Africa’s first in India since 2010, will give the team a huge boost in confidence.
“We won the World Test Championship final earlier in the year but this is right up there for us,” he said. “Playing at Eden Gardens and doing something we have not done for 15 years, you can only dream of coming here (and winning). The psyche now is that while we might not have the ability that a lot of teams have, or we have not tapped into that ability yet, what we lack in that we have certainly made up for in terms of playing as a unit. The resilience that we showed, we never give up and I am so proud in that group in terms of the belief that we have got.”
Bavuma pointed out that unpredictable bounce — rather than any vicious turn — made strokeplay risky. “Maybe from a spin point of view, you’d expect the way the wicket played, more from day three, day four onwards. But that being said, that’s what you can expect when you come to India,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever played on a day five in India. Nor have I played day four. Unless they’ve scored 600. Nothing new from my previous experience,” he quipped.
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Bavuma, however, reiterated a point that India head coach Gautam Gambhir said. “There weren’t demons…nothing that you wouldn’t expect. From a spin point of view, I felt that it was tricky. I find it a bit tricky to trust the bounce. Some balls were bouncing nicely. Others were squatting which made the cross-batted shots a bit harder.”
“I think the wicket that was prepared is what I understand was asked on their side. We’ve come here knowing that the wickets are going to be spinner-friendly. It didn’t come as a surprise…for a lot of our younger guys, it’s an experience. As much as we’ve run, there are areas we can improve within our batting and a little bit within our seam bowling. You’ve got to try and keep the scoreboard ticking. They had spread the field so there were singles on offer. I was able to capitalise on that.”
(With PTI and Reuters inputs)
