23 November,2025 08:41 AM IST | Guwahati | R Kaushik
India’s Kuldeep Yadav celebrates the wicket of SA’s Tristan Stubbs in Guwahati on Saturday
As Travis Head was out-Bazballing the Bazballers in distant Perth, a classic day of cricket unfolded at Test cricket's newest venue, the ACA Stadium.
On a surface far truer than the sandpit at Eden Gardens last week, graft and grind and patience and industry were the bywords, for batters and bowlers alike. There were no demons in the 22-yard red-soil strip, though furious run-scoring wasn't on the cards either on Saturday, Day One of the second Test.
Potentially crucial toss
Temba Bavuma won a potentially crucial toss, and will therefore look at 247 for six with mixed feelings. South Africa have first-innings runs on the board with the promise of more to come, but India didn't let their opponents have it all their own way, thanks largely to the magic of Kuldeep Yadav.
Mohammed Siraj is ecstatic after dismissing Tony de Zorzi. Pics/BCCI; PTI
The left-arm wrist-spinner couldn't extract much by way of turn, but more than made up with drift and dip, the former accounting for the well-set Tristan Stubbs, who top-scored with 49, and the latter having the number of Wiaan Mulder, whom Stubbs replaced at No. 3.
Kuldeep hogged the bowling limelight with three for 48, but India operated as a pack with commonsense and purpose, bowling straight lines, attacking the stumps and ensuring that despite 80-plus alliances for two of the first three wickets, South Africa never truly moved into the ascendancy.
Rahul drops Markram early
Aiden Markram and Ryan Rickelton had their moments of discomfort first up against Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, energised by the 9.00 am start that gave them plenty to work with. Bumrah found the outside edge of Markram's bat with the right-hander on four, only for KL Rahul to shell a regulation catch at second slip. Markram grew in confidence thereafter while Rickelton rode his luck so that 82 came for the first wicket when Bumrah returned for a second spell just before the first interval and crashed through Markram's defences through the inside-edge.
Kuldeep drew a false stroke from the left-handed Rickelton in the first over after tea, skipper Rishabh Pant taking a smart catch behind the stumps. SA had lost two for nought in four deliveries but Stubbs and Bavuma thwarted India's designs of making further immediate inroads, interspersing bouts of obdurate defence with occasional attacking stroke-making.
Stubbs, who made the mental shift needed for a middle-order bat to succeed at one-drop admirably, wasn't chary of using his feet to the spinners; Bavuma played pleasing drives and the score moved along to 166 when Ravindra Jadeja broke through, forcing the skipper to hole out to mid-off. From then on, India kept plugging away without over-attacking.
Stubbs was compelled to follow the first ball of a new spell from Kuldeep that kept drifting away from him and took the edge to slip, Mulder was undone by one that dipped late and Indian spirits were lifted in what turned out to be the final over as the hard-working Siraj had Tony de Zorzi smartly caught by Pant, to his left, with the second new ball. Honours almost even, the late strike making it India's day by a smidgeon.
