Marco Jansen grabs hold of the second Test to place Proteas on the front foot in Guwahati

The Proteas continue to take massive strides to a first Test series victory in India in 25 years. 

Temba Bavuma’s team have pegged India back to 174/7 at the close of the second session on day three in response to their imposing 489 all out.  

India lost four wickets in the morning session, and were relying on their stand-in skipper Rishabh Pant to keep the innings together with lengthy stay at the crease.

But Pant, in his customary frustrating fashion, went charging down the wicket to Marco Jansen in the first over after the break, but could only manage a feather behind to wicket-keeper Kyle Verreynne. 

The Proteas were cock-a-hoop, as they realised the importance of dangerman Pant’s wicket, and were now circling the waters in search of more wickets. 

With Jansen charging, and managing to extract extra bounce due to his height, the left-armer’s short deliveries troubled all the Indian batters. None more so than Nitish Kumar Reddy, who could only fend the ball away from his body towards the slip cordon.

It still required Aiden Markram to make plenty of ground towards the gully region, where he flung himself to the right to claim a brilliant one-handed catch diving full length. 

The Proteas tails were up, and Jansen claimed a fourth wicket shortly afterwards, when the left-arm seamer dug in another short delivery that had Ravindra Jadeja in all sorts of trouble. It pinged off the shoulder of Jadeja’s bat to offer Markram a much simpler chance at slip.

India were reeling at 122/7 and could easily have been rolled over during the second session, but it was left to spin duo Washington Sundar (33*) and Kuldeep Yadav (14*) to steady the ship with an unbeaten 52-run stand for the eighth wicket. 

SCOREBOARD

2nd Test, Day 3, 'Lunch'

South Africa: 489 all out

India: 174/7 (Jaiswal 58, Sundar 33*, Jansen 4/43, Harmer 2/61)

South Africa leads by 315 runs