India won the toss at the start of Day 1 of this only test between the series hosts and visitors, the Proteas Women, and skipper Harmanpreet Kaur didn’t hesitate to drive the match to their advantage, racking up a record Day 1 score and declaring for huge first innings lead of 604/6 early on Day 2.
Standard stategy with that headway is to bear down with maximum intent, and that Kaur did giving the right-arm offbreak spin of bowling all-rounder Sneh Rana all the overs she needed – 25.3 to be exact, to work her way through the SA batting lineup for another Indian record, claiming 8 wickets for 77 runs, seeming to break the back of an exhausted and dispirited touring team, which had lost the ODI series 3-nil to India just prior to this Test.
But in that second day’s play was a gem hidden from plain sight, two inspired innings which promised more, and one of which has paid rich dividends for the South Africans on Day 3, as the rule of the batter who is ‘in’ gaining a distinct advantage against tired bowlers turned to the Proteas Women’s advantage, and by the end of Sunday, it was the Indian team’s demeanour that was visibly shaken.
And the primary reason for that change in temparement was SA batter Suné Luus (109), who followed up a first innings maiden half-century with her maiden Test century on Sunday after SA were asked to follow on, a decision surely rued by India ahead of the series’ final day on Monday.
The risks were no less than those faced by SA in the first innings, and the very competent opener Anneke Bosch (9) cruely paid with her wicket as proof when a Deepti Sharma delivery trapped her LBW, having risen barely above ankle height after pitching.
But Luus and skipper Wolvaardt are both accomplished cricketers, and as impactful as Kaur and Rana were after Day 2, so were these two Proteas stars on Day 3, relishing the opportunity to send tired Indian cricketers chasing leather all around the famed Chepauk oval on Sunday.
In a change of fortune most striking, first innings wrecking ball Rana went wicketless in 20 overs during South Africa’s second innings, conceding 64 runs in the cause. Only Deepti Sharma bowled more overs, and her soletary breakthrough came in her first over, and she found no further reward in her remaining 22 overs that followed.
When Luus eventually lost her wicket, playing a Kaur delivery on twelve overs before stumps on Day 3, any Indian relief must have been short-lived, as it brought to the crease the second part of the gem glimpsed on Day 2: One of SA’s best proponents of playing India’s bowlers, and the only batter to out-score Luus in the first innings, SA’s bowling all-rounder playing as a batter in this Test, Marizanne Kapp.
Kapp (15*) and Wolvaardt (93*) will know that they need to start from ball 1 again on Monday, and with the added danger that India had taken their second new ball two overs before the close of play on Sunday, and will face a new ball on Monday.
But in their hearts will be the certainty that if they play to their potential, as they can, and if luck looks down on them slightly more than it does on the Indians, South Africa will win a proud draw in the third Test match of this generation’s era, an opportunity too valuable to squander.
Main Photo Caption: Proteas Women batter Suné Luus hit her maiden Test century on Sunday, racking up 109 runs in a 190-run partnership with Laura Wolvaardt, an innings which has given the South Africans reserves of hope for a positive outcome in Chennai on Sunday, 30 June, 2024. Photo: Cricket South Africa
Photo 2 Caption: SA captain and opener Laura Wolvaardt played a masterful innings on Sunday, 93 not-out overnight in sight of a deserved maiden century Photo: Cricket SA
Photo 3 Caption: Proteas Women’s batter Suné Luus was in a class of her own, imperiously dominating the Indian attack to SA’s benefit. Photo: Cricket SA
Photo 4 Caption: Wolvaardt and Luus combined for a masterful innings of 190 off 394 balls, sapping the strength of the Indian fielders. Photo: Cricket SA
Photo 5 Caption: The best South African proponent of playing Indian bowlers, Marizanne Kapp, is at the crease with Wolvaardt, on 15 not out overnight. Photo: Cricket SA
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