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These are tough times for Hampshire and their coach, Dale Benkenstein, is trying to find a way to reinvigorate the season of Michael Carberry to aid a relegation fight

Freddie Wilde at the Ageas Bowl28-Jun-2016
ScorecardHampshire hope a move down the order can spark Michael Carberry’s form•Getty Images

There was a heavy sense of sadness about this, the flattest of days, at the Ageas Bowl. Played out in front of a smattering of barely 100 people, a crowd described by one seasoned journalist as the smallest he had seen here for at least a decade; bottom of the table, relegation-threatened Hampshire battled and blocked, nudged and nurdled and waited for the forecasted rain to fall.It is at times like these that a club needs its senior players. In Michael Carberry, Hampshire have one who stood up better than most to some of the fastest bowling in history when Mitchell Johnson ripped England apart in the 2013-14 Ashes. Shortly after that, perhaps harshly, Carberry’s international career came to an end and Dale Benkenstein, the Hampshire coach, revealed it has not been an easy adjustment for Carberry to make. This season season his average hovers around the mid-20s.As part of Hampshire’s attempt to re-motivate Carberry they have shifted him down the order to No. 4 to give him a new challenge and the management will have been pleased with the fight he showed, closing on an unbeaten 37, alongside Sean Ervine in a 52-run stand before play was halted.”We are trying to find some motivation for Carbs,” explained Benkenstein. “I think it’s tough when you don’t have England anymore. You just lose your oxygen. When you’ve had one thing as your goal and suddenly it goes, and you’ve never really thought about anything else – you’ve always wanted to play for England. I’ve seen that with a few senior players in my career as captain.””Physically and skill-wise he could play for many more years, but at this level you have got to have a real hunger to play. Especially as a batsman you have to have that hunger for runs because you are getting a year older and guys are getting faster and better and they have ambition to play for England and you tend to see guys drop off quite quickly.””We’ve found he is actually playing quite well but keeps getting out,” Benkenstein said of the move to bat him down the order. “The new ball is always tough in England and we thought maybe it’s a chance to free him up a bit and take him away from the new ball. Just changing his role gives him a bit of a mini-challenge and we are hoping that stimulates him.”Hampshire will hope Carberry can flourish in the second half of the season. Play began under a warming sun, but as the day wore on, the clouds thickened and darkened and like the looming threat of Hampshire’s relegation, they slowly closed in.When, at 3.18pm the umpires decided the light was too bad for play to continue Ervine and Carberry could hardly have left the pitch much quicker. Less than five minutes later it started to rain and the players never returned.More rain is forecast tomorrow and Hampshire could well escape this match with a draw but having been hoping for rain since mid-afternoon on day one, it will be with a heavy heart that they make the five hour drive to Chester-le-Street on Saturday.This pitch has been very slow, too slow to produce particularly intriguing cricket, and without the blanket of dark clouds under which they bowled on the first day, Somerset must have felt what it was like to bowl several overs in Hampshire’s shoes on day two as the hosts fought admirably against some accurate bowling.Unlike Somerset’s batsmen however, Hampshire’s were unable to convert strong starts into significant scores. All three of the wickets to fall were self-inflicted.Tom Alsop was the first to go when shortly before lunch he was caught at second slip having tried to cut a ball from Peter Trego that was too straight to do so to and angling in further still. Alsop’s wicket ended a stoic partnership of 89 – tellingly Hampshire’s best second-wicket stand of the season.That Alsop received a generous reception from Hampshire’s members for his 53 when he finally reached the pavilion, head bowed, bat hanging limply by his side and dragging along the turf, is perhaps emblematic of the club’s readjusted expectations. A good effort it was, but ultimately not good enough.After the interval Will Smith dragged on to Lewis Gregory and when Liam Dawson’s limp push outside off stump ended up in the hands of second slip there was a possibility Hampshire were not even going to beat the rain, let alone Somerset.After an hour of thick, miserly rain, with darkness enveloping the ground and puddles forming on the covers, the floodlights were unceremoniously switched off. Ten minutes after that, with the ground practically deserted but for a lone member of the ground staff, the PA system echoed around the stadium confirming to no one but the assembled press that play had been abandoned.And with that the lonely groundsman trudged across the outfield and disappeared into the bowels of the stadium, the only sound he left behind him was the gentle patter of rain on the covers as a melancholy day crept slowly towards its end.

Azhar Ali said the series win against Zimbabwe boosted the team’s confidence, and also gave him ample belief as captain ahead of the upcoming series against Sri Lanka

Umar Farooq01-Jun-20151:33

Coming to Pakistan was about playing cricket – Whatmore

After leading Pakistan to a 2-0 ODI series win against Zimbabwe, Azhar Ali has said the victory boosted the team’s confidence, and also gave him ample belief as captain ahead of the tour of Sri Lanka. Pakistan, playing their first home series in six years, whitewashed Zimbabwe in the two-match T20 series and also won the ODI series.Azhar, who was appointed ODI captain after the World Cup, had lost his first assignment 0-3 to Bangladesh in April. However, he not only won his first home series as captain but was also the leading run-scorer with 227 runs at 75.66. He also became the first Pakistan captain to make a century in a successful chase in ODIs.”It’s been an exciting and emotional series for many reasons,” Azhar said. “It became important for us, as many of us never played in Pakistan, and winning makes it more significant because it gives you confidence. I know the opponent wasn’t as big but they played good cricket against us and eventually a win is a win and this will definitely help us move forward.”I’m happy that I was able to carry out the responsibility of captaincy very well and score runs as a batsman. I always try to make myself feel as a batsman while batting but obviously there are a lot of things going on in my mind. But I think to be a good batsman, you have to be your own captain first. I always go in with the same sense, which was the reason I was successful in this series.”To develop confidence you have to win and it becomes a habit only when you start winning games consistently. You don’t have to bother who the opponent is but it is the belief that makes you win. So this belief has to build in our players, which is very important.”Since the World Cup, Pakistan have made extensive changes to their squad in a bid to rebuild the side. The transition saw some experienced hands – Shoaib Malik and Mohammad Sami – return to the team, while many youngsters got a chance as well. The experiment was seen as necessary to find the best combination.”These players have been waiting for a long time after performing in the domestic circuit,” Azhar said. “So the idea is to induct them gradually and test their skills at this level. But at the end we have to figure out the best combination by mixing it up with experienced players. We all know that we are facing a tough challenge to qualify for the Champions Trophy so we have to find the right combination in both the bowling and batting departments who can finish the game well.”Pakistan are presently facing a dearth in their bowling resources: Mohammad Irfan, Rahat Ali, Imran Khan and Sohail Khan are all injured, and Saeed Ajmal has been left out of the side. Sami, Hammad Azam and Anwar Ali helped Azhar win the series against Zimbabwe at home but it may not be enough to take on Sri Lanka in their upcoming series.”There are a lot of injuries in our bowling department and I am hopeful that all the players will be available for selection. This will help us find our best combination looking at the conditions in Sri Lanka,” Azhar said. “We are also going through a tough time after the retirement of some senior players but the players coming up are talented enough to be considered. They have the temperament and are performing well but the only thing is to give them an opportunity.”I am optimistic they will blossom, but you can’t notice the result with one or two series, one needs to be given one or two years to establish themselves. Soon we will be able to fight with any team in the world with the same level of competitiveness which is required for modern cricket.”Babar Azam, the 20-year-old batsman, made his debut in the third ODI and scored 54 off 60 balls. His composed innings under pressure, when Pakistan had lost three wickets for 36 runs, helped post a decent target of 296. “The highlight of the series against Zimbabwe was the young batsman Babar Azam who played well under pressure,” Azhar said. “These are the innings that reflect how much potential he has in him. It was a tough innings to play and I am happy that we found players who can perform under this kind of pressure.”

Dimitri Mascarenhas has criticised the pitch in Centurion, calling it “no good for 20-over cricket” after Hampshire were knocked out of the Champions League

Firdose Moonda in Centurion10-Oct-2012Hampshire captain Dimitri Mascarenhas has criticised the pitch at SuperSport Park in Centurion, calling it “no good for 20-over cricket” after his team was knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers having played only one match. Hampshire posted 121 on a surface with inconsistent bounce that did not allow the ball to carry through quickly, and Auckland reached the target with 33 deliveries to spare.”When we saw the pitch yesterday, we thought there was no way we could play on the wicket,” Mascarenhas said. “We knew that whoever won the toss would win the game. I heard there was a chance the match would be moved to the Wanderers but obviously that didn’t happen.” There has been no confirmation that a request was put in to change the venue and the second match continued as scheduled in Centurion.When the Hampshire team saw the pitch on Monday it was being watered, which groundsman Hilbert Smit said was “standard practice.” He admitted he may have “misread the weather,” when he watered the pitch during last week’s heat wave in anticipation of no rain early this week. Instead, 38 millimetres fell on Monday in the summer’s first storms, and the water table rose substantially.”Because of that [the rain] we knew the pitch would be slow and a few deliveries would hold back. But one team still scored at more than eight runs to the over and there is nothing wrong with that,” Smit said, referring to Auckland’s chase.Mascarenhas said the pitch had eased after the heavy roller was used in the innings break and it “definitely got better” to bat on. He thought his team had lost the match because of the batting performance. “Not many teams defend scores of around 120. When you are, you’re desperate for wickets and in doing that, you will give a few away.”Rather than a low-scoring game, Mascarenhas would have preferred a strip with runs in it. “In 20-over cricket, you want a flat wicket and you want to see runs on the board. You don’t want the ball to be dominating the whole time,” he said. “I am a bowler and even I don’t want the ball to dominate.”Auckland captain Gareth Hopkins was less scathing about the surface. “The toss did play a little part in it and it was easier to bat on second, but I don’t think it was too tricky up front,” he said. “It was a little bit slower than the pitch we had last night at the Wanderers and one or two balls did something funny.”Hopkins was the happier of the two captains not just because his team won but because Auckland have now qualified for the main draw. Their victories in both group matches mean they will progress irrespective of the result between Hampshire and Sialkot tomorrow.Hampshire were gutted not only to be out of the competition in the space of a day but because, as Mascarenhas said, “The most disappointing thing is that it was all in the toss, it was decided on that.”

Marcus Trescothick was named PCA player of the year for the third time at the annual end of season awards in London on Thursday evening

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Sep-2011Marcus Trescothick was named PCA player of the year for the third time at the annual end of season awards in London on Thursday evening. Alex Hales, the Nottinghamshire and England batsman, took the young player award while Alastair Cook was England’s most valuable player.Despite Somerset twice finishing in second place again on Friends Life t20 finals day and in the CB40 final, Trescothick had an outstanding season with 2518 runs in all competitions putting him at the top of the batting list even though he missed games towards the end of the season due to an ankle injury. Trescothick is only the second player, after Sir Richard Hadlee, to win the Reg Hayter Cup three times.Hales, meanwhile, was rewarded for passing 1000 runs in the County Championship for the first time along with hitting 544 runs in Twenty20 cricket which earned him an England call-up to face India at Old Trafford. Although he made a second-ball duck he will get another chance to impress in the two matches against West Indies.Cook and Stuart Broad, who is currently out injured, were recognised for their part in England’s triumphant summer with the overall and ODI most valuable player awards respectively. Mark Ramprakash was also named County Championship player of the decade while Andrew McDonald and Chris Nash collected domestic awards.Reg Hayter Cup for the NatWest PCA Player of the Year Marcus Trescothick (Somerset)
John Arlott Cup for the NatWest PCA Young Player of the Year Alex Hales (Nottinghamshire)
ECB Special Award Patrick Eagar
PCA Special Merit Award Jack Bannister
Sky Sports Sixes League Winner Darren Stevens (Kent)
NatWest ODI Player of the Year Stuart Broad
England FTI MVP of the Summer Alastair Cook
LV=County Championship Player of the Decade Mark Ramprakash
Friends Life t20 Player of the Year Andrew McDonald (Leicestershire)
Clydesdale Bank 40 Player of the Year Chris Nash (Sussex)
PCA Umpire of the Year Michael GoughFTI Team of the Year Alastair Cook, Marcus Trescothick, Chris Nash, Alex Hales, Darren Stevens, Steven Davies, Samit Patel, Chris Woakes, James Anderson, David Masters, Monty Panesar

India won the three-ODI series 1-0 as the final match was abandoned without a ball being bowled in Margao

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Oct-2010Match abandoned
ScorecardIndia won the three-ODI series 1-0 as the final match was abandoned without a ball being bowled in Margao. Heavy rain on the eve of the game clogged the ground and, though the weather was clear on match day, the outfield was not suitable for play.The result meant a winless tour for Australia. The last time they experienced something similar in India was on their tour in 2008-09 where they drew the tour game and lost the Tests 0-2.The first ODI in Kochi was also washed out in similar circumstances. It was an unfortunate result for the locals who had turned up at the stadium. The series was effectively reduced to a solitary game in Visakhapatnam and both teams took a couple of positives.For India, Virat Kohli scored a century to move ahead of Rohit Sharma in the selection pecking order and R Ashwin impressed with the ball. India, though, struggled in the end overs with Australia looting 84 from the final five overs. For Australia, Michael Clarke made a century after a disappointing performance in the Test series, in which he managed just 35 runs in four innings. Mitchell Starc, the 20-year old left-arm seamer, made a promising debut and the other debutant John Hastings too had a decent outing.

Legspinner released from tour squad to manage workload ahead of busy rest of winter

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Nov-2024Jafer Chohan, the Yorkshire legspinner, is to return home from England’s white-ball tour of the Caribbean before he has had a chance to make his international debut, with the team management choosing instead to manage his workload ahead of the forthcoming Lions tour of South Africa.Chohan, 22, made history last month when he became the first graduate of the South Asian Cricket Academy (SACA) to be named in an England squad. Launched in 2021 by Dr Tom Brown, the academy aimed to remedy the under-representation of British South Asian players in the professional game, with Chohan’s opportunity with Yorkshire arising after he had been released by Middlesex as a 17-year-old in 2019.Chohan will not, however, be making the step-up to England international status just yet. Instead, he will fly home on Monday, with the rest of the squad relocating from Barbados to St Lucia, having last night taken a 2-0 lead in the five-match T20I series, following a comfortable seven-wicket win.In addition to the Lions tour, which takes place from November 20 to December 14 and will be Andrew Flintoff’s first outing as head coach, Chohan is also due to play for Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash League, with that tournament commencing on December 15.Related

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His release from England’s white-ball squad is a reflection of the T20I team’s current success, as well as the wealth of spin options already available to Jos Buttler and Marcus Trescothick, the interim head coach.In addition to Adil Rashid, Chohan’s mentor at Yorkshire, with whom he has been working in the nets for the past fortnight, England also have Rehan Ahmed waiting in the wings as a back-up legspinner, plus Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Dan Mousley and Will Jacks in the current starting XI.Nevertheless, his fast-tracking into the England set-up remains a notable achievement, given the distance he has come since 2022, when he was playing National Counties cricket for Berkshire.”SACA helped me a hell of a lot,” he told ESPNcricinfo in the wake of his call-up. “I felt like my game was in a pretty good place, but there’s no real way in, once I got out of the system. It was really tough to think, ‘Okay, I want to become a pro cricketer, how can I actually do it?’ And SACA provided that opportunity for me.”

The pair scored centuries to set up a match-winning total of 334

Abhimanyu Bose03-Sep-20231:21

Jaffer: ‘Kind of a complete game for Bangladesh’

Bangladesh bounced back from their defeat against Sri Lanka with a much-improved batting display to thump Afghanistan and secure a spot in the Super Fours of Asia Cup 2023.Centuries from the in-form Najmul Hossain Shanto and makeshift opener Mehidy Hasan Miraz helped Bangladesh post an imposing 334 for 5 before Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam helped bowl Afghanistan out for 245.Shanto followed up his fighting 89 against Sri Lanka with a brisk second ODI century, while Mehidy posted his highest score in the format before retiring hurt due to cramps in his left arm.Mehidy, opening the batting for the first time in ODIs since the 2018 Asia Cup final, took his time to get in and it was Mohammad Naim who dominated the powerplay.Naim took the attack to the bowlers from the first over, slapping Fazalhaq Farooqi’s second delivery through point for the first boundary of the match.Bangladesh were ticking along at around a run a ball for the powerplay and almost completed it without taking any damage but for a terrific googly from Mujeeb Ur Rahman that turned past Naim’s outside edge to crash into his off stump.Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mehidy Hasan Miraz took the game away from Afghanistan•AFP via Getty Images

Surprisingly, it was Towhid Hridoy who came out at No. 3 ahead of Shanto, but Shanto did not have to wait long to get in the action as Hridoy was out second ball, edging Gulbadin Naib to first slip.Shanto took six deliveries to get off the mark, with a boundary through the leg side, and then found his rhythm, hitting Naib for back-to-back fours. Mehidy and Shanto proceeded to wear Afghanistan down with a 194-run partnership off 190 deliveries before Mehidy retired hurt.Afghanistan’s star spinner, Rashid Khan, hurt himself while fielding and was introduced only in the 17th over. He started with a maiden but bowled only four overs in his first spell and was reintroduced for a second spell in the 32nd over.Bangladesh had injury concerns of their own, with Mehidy struggling throughout the innings and Shanto also pulling up while completing a run, but both batters fought on in the Lahore heat. Mehidy reached his half-century in the 24th over; Shanto pulled Farooqi for a six in the 31st to get to his.Mehidy got to his century off 115 deliveries, scampering for a single after miscuing a pull off Naib. When Rashid came back for his third spell in the 42nd over, Shanto pulled him for two boundaries in a 12-run over. In the next, Mehidy went inside out to hit Mujeeb for a six over extra cover before physios had to come out to treat him for cramps. Mehidy left the field but Shanto, who had scored 89 against Sri Lanka, reached a 101-ball century in the same over.Rashid Khan went wicketless in his 10 overs•Associated Press

Shanto was run out for 104, having slipped while attempting a single after reverse-sweeping Mujeeb.Bangladesh carried the momentum into their defence of 335, with Shoriful Islam trapping Rahmanullah Gurbaz lbw with the fourth delivery of the second over. Shoriful could have had Gurbaz two balls earlier when rapped him on the pads with an inswinger but Bangladesh chose not to review the on-field not-out decision. It did not prove costly.Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmat Shah then put on a 78-run stand off 97 deliveries, but Rahmat taking 57 deliveries for his 33 meant the asking rate was rising with every over. Rahmat eventually fell to a slower one from Taskin that stayed low.Ibrahim tried to keep Afghanistan in the hunt with a 74-ball 75 but edged Hasan Mahmud and Mushfiqur Rahim took a brilliant one-handed catch diving to his right.Hashmatullah Shahidi and Najibullah Zadran picked up the tempo, adding 62 off 52 deliveries for the fourth wicket before Najibullah missed a swipe across the line and was bowled by Mehidy.Shoriful then had Shahidi caught at deep third before knocking Gulbadin Naib’s stumps for his third wicket. Taskin finished with four, claiming the wickets of Mohammad Nabi, Rashid and Mujeeb at the back end.

Croft paces chase after bowlers share wickets in one-sided contest at Grace Road

ECB Reporters Network07-Jun-2022Lancashire 139 for 3 (Croft 45) beat Leicestershire 135 (Hill 50) by seven wicketsUnbeaten North Group leaders Lancashire Lightning made it five wins from six as they defeated Leicestershire Foxes, who have lost all three home Vitality Blast fixtures, yet won three from four on the road.The Foxes opted to make first use of what looked a good batting surface but were bowled out for just 135, failing to complete their 20 overs despite 50 from Lewis Hill. The Lightning spinners held sway, sharing six wickets and conceding only 73 runs in 11 overs.The visitors cruised past their target in the 18th overs to win by seven wickets with 23 balls to spare, veteran all-rounder Steven Croft top-scoring with 45 off 46 balls.The combination of competitively priced tickets and away wins over Yorkshire, Birmingham Bears and Worcestershire by the Foxes attracted a full house of around 5,000 to the Uptonsteel County Ground but it was an unrewarding night for most of them.A wet ball after a couple of hefty showers during the Lightning innings did not help matters for the Foxes bowlers, although against a batting line-up as strong as Lancashire’s they would have struggled to defend such a low total even in perfect conditions.Leading wicket-taker Naveen-ul-Haq removed Keaton Jennings via a caught-behind off an inside edge on to pad and ended an 81-partnership between Croft and Phil Salt (38 off 34) when the latter skied one to deep square leg.Croft, who looked nailed on for his first half-century of the season, was run out after a suicidal call for a second run by skipper Dane Vilas, but with only 36 more needed from 46 balls the outcome was never in serious doubt.Tim David, who lost his off stump to Ben Mike in swinging at a free hit on 19, won the contest with a six over wide long-on off Naveen, finishing with 24 off 17 balls.The only negatives for Lancashire were injuries to Liam Livingstone (knee niggle) and Luke Wood (tight quad), although they will hope neither is serious with their next match against Yorkshire at Headingley on Wednesday.Hamish Rutherford’s disappointing debut season for the Foxes continued with a second-ball duck as he punched Richard Gleeson straight to the fielder at short third man, leaving the New Zealand opener with just 51 runs from seven innings.Otherwise, it was a satisfactory powerplay for Leicestershire Foxes, for whom Hill was profitably innovative. Arron Lilley’s first scoring shot against his former county went back over off-spinner Livingstone’s head for six.Hill ramped a six as Gleeson’s second over went for 14 compared with three off his first as the Foxes posted 54 for two from six, Scott Steel the other casualty when he hit straight to mid-off. Hill and Lilley added 41 and the Foxes looked well set at 78 for two before the latter was caught at long-on in the 11th.But Lightning’s spinners successfully applied the brake and claimed five wickets as the Foxes stumbled to 125 for seven, two for Matt Parkinson, who removed Rehan Ahmed via a catch at long-on after the youngster had clubbed him over cover for six, two for left-arm spinner Tom Hartley, who dismissed Rishi Patel and Mike in consecutive overs, and one for David, who held a low return catch moments after Hill had completed his first half-century of the season.Callum Parkinson was leg before to a Danny Lamb slower ball, Naveen run out by a direct hit from cover and Colin Ackermann was caught at mid-wicket for 25 as the Foxes innings ended after one ball of the 20th over.

Club and ECB appeal to CDC after reduction of matches from 14 to ten in 2021 season

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Jan-2021Somerset’s points handicap for next season’s County Championship has been reduced to reflect the competition’s remodelled format, after they were sanctioned by the Cricket Discipline Commission in 2019 for breaching the ECB Pitch Regulations with their spin-friendly surfaces for home fixtures.The club was originally handed a 24-point penalty for the 2020 season – of which 12 were suspended – after being deemed to have prepared a substandard pitch for their Championship decider against Essex at Taunton in September 2019, a match in which Essex held on for a draw to secure their second title in three seasons.The deduction was initially rolled over into 2021 when the onset of Covid-19 led to the cancellation of last summer’s County Championship and the introduction of the Bob Willis Trophy, a competition in which Essex and Somerset once again played off for the title in the final at Lord’s, with Essex again taking the title after a hard-earned draw on the final day.But now, with the Championship divided into three initial groups of six to mitigate against further Covid disruption in 2021, a joint petition from Somerset and the ECB has resulted in the CDC adjusting their penalty to reflect the competition’s reduction from 14 matches (in an eight-team first division) to ten.Related

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Somerset will now begin the season with a direct eight-point penalty in the Championship’s group phase, but if they commit any further breaches of the pitch regulations in 2021, they could face a further sanction, in addition to the suspended element of their punishment, which will be revisited when the format for the 2022 County Championship is confirmed by the ECB.However, the amended sanction comes just days after Somerset’s former spin pairing of Dom Bess and Jack Leach combined with 14 wickets at Galle – including a five-for in either innings – to set up England’s seven-wicket win in the first Test against Sri Lanka.Speaking to ESPNcricinfo in the wake of that victory, senior figures at Somerset said that their overwhelming feeling was one of pride at the achievements of their spinners, with both Jason Kerr, the head coach, and Tom Abell, the captain, feeling that the club deserved recognition for the role it plays in preparing English cricketers for facing spinning conditions overseas.”Surfaces need to be good enough for four-day cricket, definitely,” Kerr said, “but ultimately you want to encourage skill development and make sure that batters are prepared to go to somewhere like Sri Lanka, and perform as well as they do in Australia or anywhere else in the world. Yes, we want to win competitions, but to me, domestic cricket is there to help make the England team as strong as possible.”

It was a day of incredible feats in Visakhapatnam, but as well as the visitors did, they still ended it trailing by 117 runs

The Report by Sidharth Monga04-Oct-20197:52

Agarkar: SA left India’s spinners short of ideas at times

Stumps South Africa exorcised some of the demons from their last tour of India on a day of glorious batting in which two of their players scored hundreds. So tough is it to play in India that despite doing much better than expected, South Africa were looking at the prospects of having to bat out three-and-a-half sessions to save the Test, which is roughly what they had batted in this innings.

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Thanks to R Ashwin’s 27th five-for, Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock will have to put off full-fledged celebrations of their incredible hundreds by two days. India still led by 117 runs with two South African wickets standing. Should the last two wickets fall early, India have enough cushion to be able to time their declaration in the third innings.Yet the magnitude of South Africa’s achievement cannot be understated. They were 15 short of becoming the first visiting team since 2013 to score 400 when not batting first in India. That year was the start of India’s dominant run at home since when they have lost just one home Test and only weather has been able to deny them a win at home when they have won the toss.Dean Elgar braces for a long vigil ahead of a session•BCCI

Bringing the biggest fight to the Indian juggernaut were Elgar of the “this is not Jo’burg” fame from the last tour and de Kock, who was not considered good enough by the South Africa selectors the last time around. The originator of that Jo’burg jibe, Ashwin, had to work much harder for his wickets here, but he showed he had just enough in his repertoire to come out with his head held high on a tough day.Elgar’s 160 was 18 short of the highest score by a visiting batsman in India’s latest dominant run at home, de Kock’s 111 was a wonderful display of natural talent backed by a clear head. It was hard work for India’s spinners on a pitch that might not have been as flat as Rajkot against England or Delhi against Sri Lanka but didn’t quite break up like Indian pitches do of late. That shouldn’t take credit away from South Africa who were ruthless against any marginal error in length, especially on the fuller side.For long periods of the innings, South Africa’s was the second-fastest innings of 80 overs or longer by an away team in India in this dominant post 2013 era. Elgar, de Kock and Faf du Plessis, who nearly matched his 2015 series tally of 60 runs in one innings, hit 42 fours and seven sixes between them. That’s 64.4% of their runs in boundaries.R Ashwin leaps in joy•BCCI

The most striking method, though, was Elgar’s, who had to fight through a top-order collapse on the first evening and saw Temba Bavuma go early on the third morning. During the last South Africa tour of India, Ashwin had mocked Elgar by saying in a press conference that this is not Johannesburg with regards to his dismissal trying to hit offspin against the turn. In this innings, though, Elgar, who called the pitches on the last tour a farce, kept playing Ashwin against the turn. Thirty-six of Elgar’s runs against Ashwin came through the leg side, including the slog sweep to bring up the century. Ashwin showed he was a good sport by applauding the innings even before the ball had landed beyond the midwicket boundary.In the four years since that last tour, South African cricket has seen a lot of turmoil, but Elgar has been a picture of stability. He has been their best batsman these four years, and that has not happened without a method. His method against spin here was to defend solidly, but every once in a while – like a swimmer coming up for a breath – he hit a boundary to earn himself the breathing space that India’s cauldron-like conditions deny you. Sixty-three of his 160 runs came through lofted shots, the highest rate for any batsman in this Test. Rohit Sharma, known for his lofted hits, was just behind.Elgar’s stability allowed du Plessis to get into an attacking mindset, employing the sweep shot to good effect. India’s bowling seemed unremarkable in this period, but they were not allowed to bowl well. Calculated risks were taken to put them off their rhythms. One of the biggest changes from the second evening was that Ashwin was now bowling a more defensive, straighter line. However, for Ashwin it has always been about getting the drift to bowl it wide outside off and not just spearing it in there. When he got one to drift away from du Plessis, the South Africa captain was now playing at a ball outside the line of his head, and it turned back to take an inside catch for backward short leg to hold.Jadeja races to 200 Test wickets•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

At 178 for 5, South Africa still needed to do a lot of work. The ball had gone soft, the pitch was not turning from the straight, and India strived to save their spinners for the second new ball. De Kock, who had started attacking at any rate, was not going to let part-timers and a seemingly less-than-100% Mohammed Shami get away with quiet overs. Some clean hitting followed in a second successive stand of 100 or more. De Kock, too, brought up his hundred with a six off Ashwin.Just before that, Elgar made a fatal misjudgement of length, top-edging a sweep for Jadeja to become the fastest left-arm bowler to 200 wickets. The new ball had more bite than the old one, and Virat Kohli was now asking his star spinners to do something for him. Ashwin did just that with two ripping offbreaks followed by one that didn’t turn and consumed de Kock. He completed his five-for with a loopy wide offbreak to draw an expansive drive from Vernon Philander and bowl him through the gate. With just four overs left in the day, South Africa would have expected better from a veteran who played this Test partly because of his batting.Those wickets in the extra half hour to make up for the rain on the first day had set up a thrilling finale to this Test. Provided there was no more rain.