India face huge task to avoid another home defeat

India vs South Africa

We knew India needed to push the game after a horrible Day 2, but what was the point of being overly aggressive? The wicket of Jaiswal triggered the collapse and it was at this point when India needed to probably rethink and be more smart. Sudharsan, Jurel and Pant threw their wickets away and exposed the rest to the fiery spell from Jansen. 

Ravi Shastri on commentary says it is just pretty ordinary batting from India as the pitch is still a good one to bat on. Our colleague Amar Panicker, says that inexperience was on display from the likes of Sai and Jurel and there should have been a good balance. 

"I think with the case of Sai Sudharsan and Dhruv Jurel, it was their inexperience that was on display. The way Sudharsan played that shot and misjudged the bounce was a rookie error. There was no need for him to take that risk as is the case with Jurel. Yes aggression is great but this team needs to know and balance it out to ensure they get the best results. Simply going for the big shots was never going to be a sustainable approach. It was understandable if there was a time crunch and India were much closer to the score, but that clearly wasn't the case. It is simply a matter of impatience and not respecting the quality of the bowlers." 

Keshav Maharaj bowls a very tight over as Kuldeep Yadav can see it off. It is now spin from both ends as Harmer continues to bowl at the left-handers with pinpoint accuracy. Sundar and Kuldeep have kept their defence up and slowly building a partnership at the moment. 

The question of India not being able to play spin once again comes up. Former batter Priyank Panchal is seeing the same patterns repeat from the New Zealand series, where India were undone by the likes of Santner and Ajaz Patel. Back then, Kohli and Rohit took the blame. Who will take the blame now? Markram has come on to bowl.