Simon Harmer produced a moment of off-spinning perfection to leave India staring into the abyss after four punishing days in Guwahati.
The home team, who have been on the back foot for most of the second Test, lost two wickets in the final hour of play on Tuesday, including that of senior statesman KL Rahul to a superb ball from Harmer.
The Proteas off-spinner claimed his 12th wicket of the series by drifting a delivery wide of off stump, drawing Rahul forward and then getting the ball to rip through the defence and into the off stump. That was just his second ball in a brief spell before bad light again stopped play.
Despite numerous concerns about the timing of the declaration, 22 minutes after the lunch break, South Africa still had enough time to get exactly what they wanted by removing both Indian opening batters. At stumps India were 27/2 chasing 548.
Yashasvi Jaiswal fell to Marco Jansen for the third time in the series, playing a cut to a ball that was too close to him and which bounced sharply to give Kyle Verreynne a simple catch behind the stumps.
Given the circumstances, it was a poor choice of shot. South Africa were unlucky on two occasions not to add to the wicket tally. Sai Sudharsan was saved by umpire Rod Tucker, who felt he was hit just outside the line of off-stump when struck on the pad by Harmer. The second time, Sudharsan’s breakdancing skills saved him when he got his bat down just in time as the ball deflected off his body towards the stumps.
Wednesday’s final day will be a stern examination for the Indian batters, who are staring at a second home series defeat, a year after being swept by New Zealand. Harmer and Keshav Maharaj have got the ball spinning, not only from the line off the stumps but, disconcertingly, also out of the rough created by the bowlers’ footmarks.
The Proteas spinners will be able to make more use of those areas than their Indian counterparts, who for the most part have adopted a stump-to-stump line and operated quite defensively since the start of day 2.
“There are some nice footholes out there, and Harmy showed how dangerous that’s going to be,” Tristan Stubbs said.
Tuesday was all about time for the Proteas — the amount they wanted to take out of the day to allow the pitch to deteriorate further — and how much of it they were going to leave India at the end.
Batting through the first two sessions was not surprising, though the scoring was slower than expected. South Africa lost three wickets in the morning, scoring only 81 runs in the session.
There was better intent shown in the afternoon, led by a sprightly 49 from Tony de Zorzi, whose example was followed by Stubbs after he had chosen to block for most of his innings earlier. The pair added 101 runs for the fourth wicket, and there were plenty of raised eyebrows when South Africa resumed after lunch, with their lead already 508 runs.
Stubbs, on 60 at the interval, explained he was given 40 minutes to get to a hundred. He fell six runs short, and upon his dismissal, Temba Bavuma declared the second innings closed on 260/5, giving his side a lead of close to 550.
That’s enough runs for him to set any sort of fields he wants on Wednesday, and the Proteas, especially their spinners, will feel encouraged to attack on a pitch that hasn’t broken up quite as much as some may have expected but is still very difficult for batting.