It only took three balls for the gauntlet to be laid down in Eden Gardens. The second Test delivery died on Aiden Markram and then on Rishabh Pant, swung late and drove away for a bye four. Then I spit the third ball lengthwise and accepted the stick of Markram’s bat. What will the next three do? And who then? With those questions being asked so early, South Africa knew they would spend the innings guessing.
“There were signs very early on that the bounce was inconsistent,” South Africa batting coach Ashwell Prince said in the post-day press conference. “A lot of times you would expect that when hitters hit 20 or 30, their confidence increases, but I don’t particularly think any of the hitters had their confidence increased because of inconsistent bounce. What can happen then is you don’t trust the surface as much as you should.”
So the challenge was heading towards what South Africa expected, although not in the way they expected: conditions, but in the form of an uneven bounce. South Africa spent the bulk of their preparations discussing fixing the tournament – and with good reason given the scars of 2015 in particular – and believed their recent successes in Bangladesh and Pakistan proved they were ready to take it on. But were they ready for India? Were they prepared for the quality and brutality of their attack?
At first, maybe. Ryan Rickleton showed good faith up front and battled Markram through what Prince described as “the best 22 balls I’ve ever seen, in terms of his positioning and movement”. Even when Markram wasn’t quite sure what to do, when he left off the backwards delivery of Mohammed Siraj, he ended up making a good decision (maybe he was lucky?) to leave, his stump remaining intact. After that, he found his timing and his first rounds came from a few straight drives full of separation.
At 57 unbeaten after 10 overs, South Africa were complacent and had perhaps forgotten the danger that lay in Jasprit Bumrah’s extended spell. But any feelings of stability were to disappear when Bumrah, in his sixth over, found a late move as Rickleton played on the wrong line and was bowled. Any hope pinned on Markram’s alertness to pave the way for a long innings evaporated when Bumrah, in his seventh over, found that extra bounce again and took the shoulder of Markram’s bat as he attempted to block it. At the end of the spell, Bumrah was convinced he had got Temba Bavuma out lbw but the height (both ball and Bavuma) prevented India from reviewing. Regardless of Bavuma’s survival at the time, South Africa was shaken.
“It was an exciting display of bowling, especially from Bumrah,” Prince said, conceding that Markram, in particular, was resigned to the delivery that dismissed him. “He looked really comfortable, and then one of them bounces away, and there’s nothing you can do about it at all. There were a fair number of good deliveries all around and sometimes as batsmen, there’s not much you can do about it.”
South Africa were not even relieved after Bumrah’s spell ended. Kuldeep Yadav bowled the next over and Bavuma had already made clear the difficulties facing him from the first-team match last week. “It takes some getting used to,” Bavuma said before the match. “He’s not a powerful player, but he can trick you when the ball goes wide and into the net. You just need a little extra time to understand the nuances.”
Bavuma then faced him at the benign Bengaluru Stadium. Here there were some turns and Bavuma fell into a trap next to his leg. Bavuma’s case can be viewed in isolation from the rest of the squad due to the amount of time he has spent out of action due to injury. His last Test was the World Test Championship final in June and he has not played in any of South Africa’s most recent subcontinent series, so his doubts could have come from more than just the pitch; They may have something to do with his own game. However, Bavuma’s cheap fall left the Middle Order exposed to an Indian attack that did not subside.
After lunch, Bumrah and Kuldeep worked side by side to create a pressure cooker that South Africa could not escape. Then Siraj, with a change of sides, “found his rhythm and his lines,” as Prince put it. Of the shot choices, only Jan Mulder’s reverse putt could come under the scanner although Prince was careful not to assess it too harshly: “I don’t want to put too much blame on a particular shot because that was also the putt he used to get himself wide of the target. We encourage hitters to play their options, back themselves and play their game, so I wouldn’t necessarily put any blame on that. One could argue that because you don’t trust the surface too much in terms of “Consistency, so that probably created some doubt about should I try to hit the ball over the top, is the bounce going to be low and is the ball going to hit the bottom of my club and maybe that’s what’s affecting people’s minds while they’re out there?”
The uncertainty of how to go about scoring runs was best seen in the return of Tristan Stubbs, who was unbeaten on 15 off 74 balls and spent four minutes less than two hours effectively going nowhere. A similar strategy worked for Stubbs in Pakistan, where he scored 29 off 100 balls en route to 76 but had a partner in Tony De Zorzi for most of that innings. De Zorzi was Bumrah-ed for 24 in this match, and none of the rest of the line-up stayed with Stubbs for long.
Should he have adopted such a defensive mentality given the fall of the wicket? Perhaps it is best to remember that Stubbs had a difficult 2025 in all formats and did not score a Test fifty last summer. This would explain why he has been so conservative in trying to maintain his position, but that does not mean he should not reconsider the matter. Prince suggested: “We will have some discussions about what kind of options we can take, more aggressive options but every batsman also comes with his own mentality. Everyone has his own personality and his own kind of style that he brings to the game. Most of the time, we trust people to play within their characters but obviously we have to take the surface into account. Next time, in the second innings, we have to play the conditions.”
They must not forget that they will also have to play against the quality of the Indian attack, which has the ability to exploit circumstances to make things doubly difficult.
