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Shami shakes Proteas in the first session of day four at SuperSport Park

After three important wickets in the first session on day four of the second Test between South Africa and India at SuperSport Park, the Proteas captain Faf du Plessis will have to come to his team's rescue.

Faf du Plessis will have to show his famous fighting spirit in the last two sessions of day four of the second test between the Proteas and India at SuperSport Park to give his team a chance to win this game and the series.

The first session of the day belonged to fast bowler Mohammed Shami when he got rid of three of South Africa’s top batsmen before lunch.

India clearly does not intend to damage their status as the world’s best test team during their tour in South Africa and they showed in the first session of day four that they definitely want to win this second Test.

After the breakthrough that Jasprit Bumrah made in yesterday’s last session with the early wickets of Aiden Markram (1) and Hashim Amla (1), Shami was the star of the first session on Tuesday. He wreaked havoc among the South African batsmen and within 90 minutes he got rid of AB de Villiers (80), Dean Elgar (61) and Quinton de Kock (12).

De Villiers and Elgar started well and they were going strong for about an hour, adding 54 runs to the overnight total. Unfortunately De Villiers made a mistake with the first ball of the 42nd over and he was caught behind the wicket by Patel.

Four overs later Shami struck again. This time Elgar was caught by Rahul and all of a sudden both batsman that started on day four for South Africa were back in the dressing room.

The next partnership between Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock did not last long. De Kock had a quick start with 12 runs from his first four balls, but the fifth delivery he received was also his last when Patel caught him behind from Shami’s bowling.

After that, Vernon Philander was sent to join Du Plessis and these two remained at the wicket until lunch. The home team went to lunch with their score on 173/5 and an overall lead of 201.

If the weather does not play a part again, South Africa will have to bat at least until the end of the day and aim for a total of about 350 runs to give them a chance to win the game.

Then the South African bowlers would hope to bowl India all out in three sessions on Wednesday, the last day of the test match.

 

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Koos Venter

Koos Venter is an experienced journalist who started his career 35 years ago, before the days of cellphones, modern computer systems, the internet and digital cameras, as a correspondent for Nexus, the former national magazine of the Department of Correctional Services. He has since worked for various other publications in all aspects of news coverage, as a columnist and in the production side of newspapers and online publications. Since 2007 he has specialized as a sports writer, while he is also regularly used as an analyst and commentator by several radio stations.
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