South African skipper Faf du Plessis is open to changing team balance for the second Test match at Pune. The visitors went down in the first Test match by a gargantuan margin of 203 runs after India came up with collective performance. The Proteas had backed five bowlers strategy but they were not able to take all the 20 Indian wickets.
In fact, the Indian fast bowlers played a key role in the final day of the Test match. Mohammed Shami was right on the money and got the ball to reverse swing. Furthermore, the pitch was keeping low on multiple occasions which helped Shami go past the defense of the opposition batsmen. Faf du Plessis believes the pitch had less to offer to fast bowlers on the first four days of the Test match.
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Faf du Plessis hints at some changes.
“Whether an extra seamer would have made a difference, I am not sure if it would have. Definitely day five, we saw that there was huge value in the seam. Obviously the up and down. But that is something for us to consider now moving into the next Test match. Whatever we feel is our best opportunity in getting 20 wickets because that’s what you need to win Test matches and obviously we couldn’t do in this Test match, couldn’t bowl them out. That’s something we will definitely look at and see how we can counter that.”
On the other hand, the tourists’ had come up with a fine batting performance in the first innings. The Proteas had scored 431 runs in the first dig but they could not replicate the same show in the second essay as they floundered at 191.
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“I thought it was a real line in the sand for us as a team,” du Plessis said. “Really proud of the first innings, the way we batted. There was an opportunity for us to go the other way and we didn’t. We played really well, senior players put their hands up in Quinny [de Kock] and Dean [Elgar] getting fantastic hundreds and to get 400 in the sub-continent is never anything easy to do. The way we responded, it was brilliant.
The South Africa skipper believes the game slipped away from them in the second innings when Rohit Sharma scored his second century of the Test match. The visitors were not to create enough chances and the Indian opener took the game away from them.
“There were a few half-chances [in the second innings] that didn’t go our way and that’s sort of where the game slipped away. We tried to stay in the fight, stay in the contest. But the way Rohit played, especially in that second innings, made it tough for us.”
The Proteas will need to rejig their plans for the second Test match at Pune. The South African team will need to play out of their skins to upset India in their own conditions. The second Test match starts on October 10.