“I’m giving my best but at this point my best is probably not good enough.” - Temba Bavuma
TELFORD VICE in Cape Town
VERNON Philander sought the cold solace of the ice pack, Keshav Maharaj winced at the whim of short, sharp shocks of pain, and both endured for their longest test innings.
But their bravery on Saturday wasn’t enough to shake South Africa’s gaze from the sharp end of both barrels of India’s shotgun.
The third day of the second men’s test in Pune ended with the visitors dismissed for 275 in reply to India’s declaration of 601/5. The South Africans are thus under a mountain that looms 326 runs high.
Even so, their compatriots are likely to have seen the Indians batting again on Sunday morning. *
Virat Kohli’s team needed 105.4 overs to dismiss South Africa, all but 15 of them bowled on Saturday, and they will be wary of having to negotiate even a nominal fourth innings on a pitch that has turned conclusively towards spin.
South Africa were nowhere near making India bat again going into the fourth day, but it was thanks to Philander and Maharaj that they weren’t significantly further away.
Their partnership began at 162/8 and endured for 109 runs and 259 deliveries, and is a record for South Africa’s ninth wicket against India.
Philander faced 192 balls for his unbeaten 44. Maharaj scored 72, his first test half-century, off 132.
The medics were busy for the almost four hours they were together. Philander needed treatment to his left elbow and forearm long after being hit by a short delivery. Maharaj, his right shoulder strapped in the wake of a crash to earth in the field on Friday that saw him taken to hospital for scans, popped painkillers.
“Sometimes, when he doesn’t have a good day, he skips supper,” Hashim Amla said in SuperSport’s studio to measure Maharaj’s mettle.
His and Philander’s efforts earned respect, not least from a dressingroom strewn with frontline batters who had been there and not done that.
One of them, Temba Bavuma, told reporters: “[For] the top order batters, the guys who are entrusted with scoring the bulk of the runs, it does hurt and dent your ego when you see the lower order go and fight it out and do what you are paid to do.
“I don’t have the answers as to where it’s going wrong, other than the obvious one of we haven’t been able to put up partnerships.
“We haven’t been able to absorb the pressure the Indian bowlers have put on us consistently.”
South Africa's slump to 36/3 at stumps on Friday, which followed a second innings of 191 in the first test in Visakhapatnam, where India won by 203 runs, took the smile off the face of interim team director Enoch Nkwe.
“He was really critical of our effort,” Bavuma said. “He said we’ve got to find a way. We haven’t come to India to lose or just to learn. We’ve come to India to compete.”
So far, not so good. And the performance of Bavuma, who has gone nine innings without reaching 50 but has kept his place as South Africa’s No. 4, is central to the issue.
“I can understand all the criticism and all the flak that is coming my way,” he said. “As a batter your currency is runs; that’s what you’re judged on.
“When your performances are not what we’re so accustomed to with South African batters people are going to come hard.
“It’s not as if I’m going out there and trying to nick balls, trying to miss straight ones.
“I’m giving my best but at this point my best is probably not good enough.”
And Bavuma is not alone. Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock scored centuries in the first innings in Vizag, but the top seven’s only contribution of 50 or more since then was Faf du Plessis’ flinty 64 on Saturday. That’s a long way from good enough.
Consequently another defeat looms, and with it series honours for India.
“No matter which way the result goes let’s make sure our pride is intact,” Bavuma said.
There is, of course, no gaurantee of that. Test cricket takes no prisoners.
- India did enforce the follow-on.
First published by the Sunday Times.
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