Simple and cerebral: How Mohammad Siraj took 6 for 15 to bowl out South Africa for 55

“Remember how we batted against Australia and England,” Rohit Sharma would remind in the immediate aftermath of the bruising at Centurion. He didn’t place the bowling in that memory frame then – they too had leaked over 400 runs on a bowler-friendly surface – but they certainly reminded everyone, least of all the South African batsmen, what venom they are capable of. In particular, their top 2 – Mohammad Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah, who pitched in new-ball spells that would stay in the mind for long as they wiped out South Africa for 55 in the first innings.

In the time to come, a highlights package might show a couple of spectacular kickers, but it was the underlying plan – refreshingly simple and yet very cerebral – that should be cherished after the profligacy in Centurion.

It had the remnants of India’s 2021 triumph in Australia but with an attacking twist: attack the leg-side game of the two most successful left-handers in the previous Test, and keep it simple to the right-handers. Against Australia, it was initially to test out the batsmen’s strengths and patience (like Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne’s), keeping them tied with a packed on-side field. Here, they gunned for the left-handers Dean Elgar and Tony de Zorzi with a more attacking approach to pursue a dismissal.

That open-chested predator Siraj had a leg-slip, a deepish short-leg very square (Rohit Sharma had stationed himself there, an oddity from a captain) and kept peppering Elgar on the middle and leg line, testing his balance.

Jasprit Bumrah, who had generally kept angling it away from left-handers at Centurion, bowled a series of inward-curlers, even bending in the yorkers at Elgar and Zorzi. The legslip was omnipresent, there didn’t seem anything untenanted on that side. The off-side though was almost barren.

Elgar’s father Richard tells a sign that he looks for that tells him how he knows his son is going to have a good batting day. If the leg-side tuck through square-leg comes early in the knock, he is happy.

Wickets fell like nine pins! 🎳

.@mdsirajofficial & Co. were on the target this morning, snapping up all 10 #SouthAfrica wickets in just the first session of the Test!

Watch all the fall of wickets here!

Tune-in to #SAvIND 2nd Test
LIVE NOW | Star Sports Network#Cricket pic.twitter.com/viu3OGxCL8

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) January 3, 2024

“It’s a bit strange but somehow that tells me he is focused, his balance is fine, and he is going to be okay,” Richard had told this newspaper. The opportunity came in the fourth ball he faced, the first from Bumrah. But Elgar’s attempted nudge turned into a shovel and the ball ballooned just over midwicket. Was that a sign of what was to come?

More curlers came from both seamers, and Elgar would try his best, but couldn’t effect any jail break. The man who had dazzled everyone in the first game with his picture-perfect inside-out cover drives wasn’t getting anything there. But dogged as he is, he seemed to hunch down in the pit, shovelling away.

Then came a series of Siraj deliveries on that leg and middle line, and Elgar would do his hop-and-stab or stand-and-tuck. Siraj then threw the bait, a length delivery outside off. In his mind’s eyes, Elgar must have seen acres of empty spaces on the off-side and jumped at it like a real-estate agent. But it wasn’t just temptation but deception too that Siraj had thrown in: this ball straightened a touch and suddenly Elgar was cramped for room. He tried to stab it out, but after being so intent on his pads for a long while, the off-side game wasn’t quite there yet. And unsurprisingly, he dragged it on to his stumps.

Siraj meanwhile was working over the dreadlocked Tony de Zorzi. Unlike Aiden Markram, who continued to be a walking wicket unable to pick length early and was playing at everything down the line and to noone’s surprise edged Siraj behind, Zorzi was leaving balls on lengths. Crisp, compact, and secure. Siraj tightened down quickly, started to go for the leg and middle, at his legs. Yet again, the leg slip and leg-side was packed. Eventually, Zorzi went for a nervy glance, constrained no doubt with the leg-side army, and KL Rahul continued his good wicketkeeping job.

Cape Town: India’s Mohammed Siraj celebrates a wicket with Virat Kohli on the first day of the second Test cricket match between India and South Africa, at the Newlands Cricket Ground, in Cape Town, South Africa, Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. (PTI Photo/Atul Yadav)

Bumrah would sort out the debutant right-hander Tristan Stubbs with his pack of tricks, alternating lengths. Then when he saw one of his regular inward-kickers pop off Stubbs’s thigh pad, he would have known that’s the way to go. Another one was GPSed in the same code, and Stubbs stabbed it off the inner edge to Rohit at short-leg.

It was 15 for 4 in the 10th over, and India didn’t even have to go yet to Prasidh Krishna or Mukesh Kumar.

In his second spell, Siraj would ensure neither Krishna nor Mukesh had to do any heavy lifting. The David Bedingham delivery wouldn’t be easily forgotten by the bowler nor that batsman. It was a kicker from just back of length, and it flew off the splice of the bat to the slip cordon, which was pretty good with Yashasvi Jaiswal lunging either way to pouch catches.

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With Kohli in ears of the bowlers and also the captain – he could be seen gesticulating to Rohit to have a short leg for Elgar earlier, more good things were around the corner for Siraj. With Kohli urging him to hit the off-stump line to Marco Jansen, Siraj reproduced the request to see Jansen perish behind to bag his five-for, his third such accomplishment. And in his ninth over, he had the wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne edge a drive to end up with his best Test figures 6 for 15 and South Africa hurried to their end.

It was now upto the Indian batsmen to ensure they secure a mighty edge on the game, but that would be easier said than done on this track and against a good South African attack.

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