The Comeback

There are rare moments , when a team/player has just faced a loss that can be only described as beyond despair . When they thought it could not get worse . But what is more memorable than the loss , but the sudden turnaround . Proving their mettle on the court .

One such example is the South African team . After being beaten (and quitely badly , as many would add) in their fortress , The Centurion , not many would have expected to see the Proteas give back a fighting reply . But in the Johanessburg test , they did exactly that !

Upset by the loss in Centurion , South Africa followed a dogged approach . They tried to stay as long as possible on the crease , without giving a wicket . The runs scored didn’t matter , nor did the number of balls wasted . All the batsmen cared about was to play a war of attrition . No one exemplified this better than Dean Elgar. In the first innings , he scored 28 runs in 120 balls , eating 20 whole overs to wear out the bowlers . This continued the second time South Africa went to bat too , with them scoring 243 to win . They took their time of over 70 overs and lost only 3 wickets . In comparison both innings by India got over within 65 overs .

Why did it work ? With the absence of Kohli , KL Rahul the new captain , the South Africans chose to mentally attack the lack of aggression. While leaving all necessary balls , the aim was to wear down key bowlers and score at a reasonable rate . On the other hand , the protean bowlers had an answer ready for each batsman . AN effective two pronged attack made a lack luster South African team lose hope and gift their hosts the second game .

If the first game was about shining individual performances , this one was a team effort , with everyone contributing in their own little way possible to win against the arguably best team in the world .

If these are the first two tests , I cannot wait to find out what happens next in this series , and I am sure avid cricket fans are waiting with bated breath too.