Former India cricketer Ravi Shastri was highly critical of the batters for their abysmal performance against South Africa on Day 3 of the second Test. He labelled their batting effort as "very ordinary" and remarked that the Guwahati pitch isn't a track where they should have suffered a collapse. His comments came after the Men in Blue had been restricted to 142/7 with the middle-order in particular failing to deliver.
"This is still a good surface. This is not a pitch to be 142 for 7. Ordinary batting. India won't be one bit happy. You have to put your hands up and say that's very ordinary batting," Shastri said while commentating.
Though India had started their innings on a solid note with the opening partnership of 65 runs by Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul. Both the batters looked in good touch at the crease, but Keshav Maharaj provided the big breakthrough for South Africa and dismissed Rahul for 15 runs.
Jaiswal went on to score a fluent half-century, but couldn't manage to stay on the crease for long after that and got dismissed for 58 runs by Simon Harmer, restricting India to 95/2. Despite being in a decent position by that time, it was the batting collapse that tore apart the Men in Blue's innings. Marco Jansen was the star of the show for The Proteas as he completely decimated the middle-order.
India's middle-order fails miserably
The likes of Dhruv Jurel, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy only managed to score 23 runs between them as the hosts were down to 122/7 at one stage, losing six scalps in the space of just 27 runs. Though the duo of Washington Sundar and Kuldeep Yadav tried their best to rescue India's innings and formed a valiant 72-run partnership, the South African bowlers eventually broke through and bundled them out for just 201, taking a mammoth 288-run lead.
Jansen and Harmer absolutely dominant
While Jansen recorded stunning figures of 6/48, Harmer also contributed well with three wickets under his name. Despite being far ahead in the match, the visitors decided not to enforce follow-on over their opponents and returned to bat for their second innings. Openers Ryan Rickelton and Aiden Markram ensured that that the Proteas didn't lose any wickets and wrapped up the day on 26/0.