South Africa fight spin with fire but burn again

A different city with different weather, a different outcome at the toss, a slightly different XI to work with, but result turned out to be the same. South Africa were spun out for the third successive innings, despite adopting a different approach.

This time, South Africa took note of their weakened display in Mohali and opted for a more advanced fightback. They decided to do so by taking on the bowlers. The problem was that South Africa came with a formatted approach, not always accurate, and India's spinners had the disruptive skill to pierce through the batting line-up.

It was not all about revolutions on the ball. Anticipation of spin and absence of spin are as powerful as the spin itself and India have used all three against South Africa to ask worrying questions about the reliability of their usually solid top seven.

The shakiness starts at the top, where Stiaan van Zyl is still settling into the role, especially against spin. In the opening exchanges, he accepted Ishant Sharma's challenge, which forced him to play at all but two of the first 12 balls Ishant bowled to the opener. Van Zyl would have thought he had won the battle when he hit Ishant for two crisp cover drives but that was only an invitation for Virat Kohli to attack. R Ashwin was brought in the eighth over and, in an action reply of his dismissal in Mohali, van Zyl played for turn, missed a straight one, and was trapped lbw.

The early blunder should have prevented Faf du Plessis from going down the track to the third ball he faced from Ashwin but it didn't. Du Plessis, who has spent his Test career laying the bricks to become South Africa's wall, wanted the whole house immediately. But the lack of a foundation meant that it fell on him.

Amidst that collapse, the captain should have kept calm. But Hashim Amla has developed a rash penchant for rushing since the start of this tour and it seeped into the second Test as well. His first scoring shot was a cracking cut past point. The delivery deserved that - it was short and wide - and Amla expected more. He tried to follow up with a drive down the ground but with no footwork and hard hands, he only got an edge and then he finished the over with another slash. In the end, Amla got a beauty from Varun Aaron, which he could not stop from taking out his off stump.

Dean Elgar, who survived a tough morning session in which Stuart Binny teased the edge, tested his footwork and surprised him with bounce, threw it away. He tried to sweep the second ball after lunch and played on. Elgar has now squandered starts in both Tests and as the senior opener, that kind of error should be cause for concern. JP Duminy charged Ravindra Jadeja from the first ball he faced and Dane Vilas gifted him a return catch trying to drive on the up. South Africa's plans to take the fight to India, and Jadeja in particular, ended up falling flat, but their coach Russell Domingo could not fault their intent.

"You can't just sit in your crease all the time against quality spinners because you're going to get a good delivery that's going to beat you or find the edge or just skid on. You've got to look to score," Domingo said. "It's about taking the right decision and taking the right option and a few times we didn't take the right option today. If you just sit back in your crease and get bowled out, guys will say you didn't play positively enough. If you do try look to score they'll say you guys are playing too loosely. It's a fine line and a tough balance."

The only batsmen who achieved that equilibrium was AB de Villiers. Again.

In his 100th Test, de Villiers showed why he is a class above. He could have gone after the second ball he faced, short and wide from Aaron, but he put the pull away. He gave himself a little bit of time, though only 11 deliveries, to practice playing straight, read the lines, and then he picked the moment to send one through midwicket. There was a gap on the leg side, the ball was slanting into the pads and his wrists did the rest.

De Villiers was also aggressive, but unlike the rest of his team-mates, he was able to adjust. When he saw Ashwin bowling a flatter one, he went back to pull; when he saw Ishant drawing him forward, he stepped out to drive and when he saw he was running out of partners, he tried to hike the scoring rate. That was South Africa's plan all along.

Their batsmen seemed to have decided before the start of play that their dismissal was inevitable and batting to survive would be wasted. They wanted to maximise every minute in the middle and hope that they would make enough. De Villiers may think that he hasn't. Fifteen runs short of his century, he charged the spinner, swept hard and managed an edge but as the only batsman in his side who showed both staying and scoring power, he could be forgiven for that fault. Now, it's up to the rest to make up for theirs.