India facing the follow-on as South Africa keep chipping away
India lost three wickets in the second session to slump to 174-7 at lunch on day three of the second test against South Africa in Guwahati on Monday, with the hosts trailing by 315 runs and in danger of being asked to follow-on.
Washington Sundar (33) and Kuldeep Yadav (14) forged a 52-run partnership for the unbroken eighth wicket but India are still well short of South Africa's first innings total of 489.
After losing the opener of the two-test series in Kolkata inside three days, India began cautiously on a wicket described as a "road" by spinner Kuldeep Yadav because of its lack of assistance for the bowlers.
KL Rahul (22) looked compact in his defence while his opening partner Yashasvi Jaiswal (58) was more fluent at the other end, often employing the sweep shot to counter the spinners.
Keshav Maharaj broke the 65-run opening stand an hour into play when Rahul lunged forward to defend a ball but was done for by the extra bounce. The ball hit the shoulder of his bat before nestling into Aiden Markram's hands at slip.
Jaiswal took two off Simon Harmer's bowling to bring up the first fifty by an India batter in the series but his knock did not last much longer.
The lefthander was surprised by the slowness of the track and spooned a Harmer delivery towards backward point where it would have landed short of most players but not the 2.06m tall Marco Jansen, who dived forward to pouch the ball.
Harmer claimed a second victim when Sai Sudharsan pulled the ball to Ryan Rickelton at mid-wicket.
Jansen (4-43) then took to India's middle order with a bouncer barrage that paid off handsomely on an otherwise docile track.
The left-arm quick dismissed Dhruv Jurel, Rishabh Pant, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Ravindra Jadeja to leave India reeling on 122-7. Jurel fell for an 11-ball duck, while Reddy departed when Markram took a stunning one-handed catch in the slip.
