Hopes of comeback in test series dashed, India got the grand target of 549 runs, team in trouble

India’s disappointing performance in the second Test against South Africa continued on Tuesday. While chasing the huge target of 549 runs given by South Africa, the team lost two wickets for 21 runs. The Indian team, which is trailing 1-0 in the Test series, faces a tough challenge tomorrow as it has only eight wickets left on the last day of the Test. India lost wickets in the last session of the fourth day and South Africa is in a strong position on the last day of this match being played at Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati.

 

India’s score at stumps on the fourth day was 27/2, with Kuldeep Yadav (4*) and Sai Sudarshan (2*) unbeaten. The hosts need 522 runs on the fifth day to level the two-match series 1-1. Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul were out cheaply. South Africa started the day at 26/0 in the second innings and reached 220/4 at lunch with Tristan Stubbs (60*) and Wiaan Mulder (29*) on strike.

Nitish Kumar Reddy hit his first four in the post-lunch session when Stubbs hit him for four fours on the third ball of the 74th over. Stubbs adopted an aggressive approach and hit two consecutive fours against Reddy in the 76th over. In the 78th over, the Proteas batsman hit a sky-high six over the deep mid-wicket boundary off Ravindra Jadeja. On the third ball of the 78th over, Stubbs, who was on his way to his century, was bowled by Jadeja, who scored 94 off 180 balls.

 

After Stubbs was out, South Africa decided to declare their innings at 260/5 and they set a difficult target of 549 runs. This is the second time that India has been given a target of more than 500 runs in a home Test. Earlier in 2004 in Nagpur, Australia had given India a target of 543 runs to win. They lost that match by 342 runs, which is their biggest defeat in terms of runs. Indian openers KL Rahul and Yashasvi came out to bat. Jaiswal showed aggressiveness by hitting a four and a six, while Rahul started cautiously.