Mohammed Siraj breathes fire in Cape Town but Indian batters disappoint

He’s done it previously in limited-overs cricket, and now he’s done something similar in Test cricket as well. Remember the name, he is Mohammed Siraj. The Siraj who can break your hearts with his bowling, the Siraj who can be dependable and the Siraj who can strike for his team when it matters the most.

For India, on Day 1 of the second Test against South Africa in Cape Town on Wednesday, Siraj was someone who did all of the above. He broke South Africa’s hearts and sent their hopes of winning this series into tatters. It was almost like a one-man show in the first innings, as Siraj’s figures of 6/15 led South Africa’s collapse, being bundled out for 55, their lowest score in the post-apartheid era.

This was just months after Siraj’s figures of 6/21 had decimated Sri Lanka to a total of 50 in the Asia Cup 2023 final in Colombo.

Siraj breathes fire

There’s no doubt that Siraj is a beast when it comes to limited-overs cricket. He is a proven talent in limited-overs cricket for India, and perhaps his stellar display with the ball against the Proteas on Wednesday was a stark reminder of how good he can be on the trickiest of pitches.

Having said that, South Africa’s decision to bat on a pitch that had decent amount of grass did raise a few eyebrows, just like their batting in that first innings. But little did anyone know what was about to unfold.

The Cape Town pitch on Wednesday offered a lot of bounce, and thus favoured the pacers big time. So much so that, some of the batters even copped blows to their shoulders, thereby affecting their batting rhythm in a major way.

Siraj, though, would go onto bowl consistent lines in Cape Town. He learnt from his mistakes in Centurion, when his lack of consistency in bowling regular lines affected his rhythm. On Wednesday, once he got into his groove, nobody was going to stop Siraj from doing what he does best.

One major mistake from the first Test that Siraj rectified was the swing. In the first Test in Centurion, Siraj was regularly looking for swing, whereas in Cape Town Siraj targeted those hard lengths to frustrate the batters.

“On these wickets, where ball is doing so much, often bowlers tend to think, ‘let me try and bowl an outswinger darting from leg to off or get one to bend back from angle but one should just stick to one line. ”If you hit areas, wickets will come automatically, if you try many things, you yourself can get confused,” Siraj said after Day 1.

While most of his dismissals in the first innings came through length balls, a couple of them, to remove Tony de Zorzi and Aiden Markram, he unleashed full length balls. In fact, it was these full length balls that he consistently targeted in bowling, and Siraj looked immaculate with those.

And two of his wickets that he celebrated were caught by Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was sharp in that slip cordon. The first of those, was that crucial wicket of Aiden Markram. Siraj unleashed a pitched up delivery around off, almost persuading Markram to play for that shot. Markram, however, decided to take the defensive approach this time, although he ended up taking an edge off the bat towards Jaiswal.

The next one where Jaiswal claimed a catch was Siraj’s dismissal of David Bedingham. There was extra bounce on offer from Siraj, but Bedingham was not aware of this, as the ball took the batters’ gloves while flying towards Jaiswal at third slip.

Another one of those dismissals that caught the eye of many was Siraj’s legcutter to dismiss Marco Jansen in the 16^th over. His legcutter in that over made Jansen play on the front foot and defend, only for the latter to take the edge off the bat towards wicketkeeper KL Rahul. That was execution from Siraj at his best, and could not have asked for a better way to claim his five-fer.

Two overs later, Siraj was at it again. This time in the 18^th over to dismiss Kyle Verreynne. It was a full length ball pitched outside off from Siraj, and Verreynne went for the drive, but got an edge off the bat that flew to Shubman Gill at second slip. Some things are better left untouched, and Verreynne could have left this ball alone, but going for that drive cost him and his team big time.

Batters disappoint again

One would have expected India to build a formidable lead and gain advantage in this Test in their bid to level the series. However, for India, barring three of their top four batters, a majority of them failed to fire. It was one of those days when it didn’t really matter for how many runs India were dismissed, but the unceremonious fashion in which they were dismissed.

India were just two runs away from a 100-run lead at 153/4, but then came the impossible. Not many would have seen it coming: India lost six wickets, for absolutely no runs at all.

The visitors hardly got the start they wanted after losing Yashasvi Jaiswal for a seven-ball duck. However, a 55-run partnership between Rohit Sharma (39) and Shubman Gill (36) had certainly put India back in the game, but even that was short-lived.

Nandre Burger (3/42) continued from where he had left off in the first Test whereas Lungi Ngidi (3/30) wreaked havoc to dismiss India’s middle-order batters. There have been talks of India’s middle-order transition following the seeming ousters of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane from the team, but Shreyas Iyer (0) was far from his best as his move to defend a length ball angled across middle and off stump ended up badly, with Iyer generating an edge off the bat onto the hands of Kyle Verreynne, the South Africa wicketkeeper.

India’s disastrous collapse began at 153/4 when KL Rahul, who was batting at eight off 32 balls having scored just one boundary, gave his wicket away by playing a loose shot. It was a short length ball from Ngidi, but Rahul was undone by the extra bounce and went for the upper cut, only for him to get a faint edge off the bat towards the Proteas’ wicketkeeper.

Ngidi would go onto get the wickets of Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah in the same over, to further restrict India to 153/7. Rohit and Gill had been dismissed just when they were staring to look set, and Virat Kohli was India’s last hope to pull something off.

However, Kohli batting at 46, pushed at the length ball from Rabada but got an outside edge off the bat towards Markram stationed at second slip. India’s hopes of further extending the lead were in tatters once Kohli was dismissed, and the fact that there was nobody who could support him at the other end did not help India’s case either.

India were 153/8 at this stage, and it was just a matter of time before the tail succumbed to the pressure as the visitors eventually collapsed like nine pins.