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Batting with tailenders is an art and so is mopping up the tail. The set batters look for any way to sneak a single to sneak a quick single to get on strike whereas the opposition captain sets the field to not let that happen. It was a similar stage when Prasidh Krishna walked out to bat with KL Rahul on the other end. Rahul was desperate for a single and the second ball Gerald Coetzee bowled went down the leg side and wicketkeeper Kyle Verryenne’s lack of match awareness led to an easy single via byes.
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In the 66th over, Coetzee dismissed Mohammed Siraj. He had five more deliveries to get the wicket of Siraj to leave Rahul stranded on 95. He started with a fuller delivery on which Krishna shouldered his arms. Next ball, he bowled another full delivery but missed his line as it went down the leg side. Wicketkeeper Verreynne collected the ball and casually lobbed it to the second slip fielder. Meanwhile, Rahul was quick to call Krishna for a single as the ball was not dead. Coetzee was visibly frustrated as he gave Verreynne a stare for letting no.11 batter Krishna off the hook.
On the next ball, Rahul tried to play the cut shot but it went over his bat. He followed it up with a bouncer. Rahul could not get his bat on the ball as it went over his bat once again. On the last ball of the over, Rahul decided to get to his century in style. He cleared his front leg and hit the ball in the slot over the deep midwicket boundary for a maximum to breach the three figures.
Next over, Krishna managed to defend six deliveries from Marco Jansen. Rahul tried to score quickly in Nandre Burger’s over but ended up getting bowled. He scored 101 runs from 137 balls including 14 fours and four sixes.
He became the first visiting batter to score more than one Test century in Centurion. His gritty knock took India’s score to 245 despite Kagiso Rabada’s five-wicket haul on Day 1.
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