‘We wanted India to crawl,’ says South Africa coach:Shukri Conrad’s big talk after Day 4 of Guwahati Test; Men in Blue on verge of clean sweep tomorrow

We wanted India to spend as much time on their feet out in the field. We wanted them to really grovel(crawl). This statement was given by Shukri Conrad, the coach of the South African cricket team, which is on the verge of a historic series win against India. After winning the first Test in Kolkata, the African team is 8 wickets away from a historic victory in Guwahati. South Africa has given India a target of 549 runs. By the end of the fourth day, in the last innings of the match, India had lost the wickets of Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul. Only 27 runs have been scored. Wednesday is the final day of the match, and from here, India’s victory is almost impossible. South Africa is set to win a Test series in India after 25 years. Before this, in the year 2000, they had won a two-match series in India by 2-0. Former England captain’s phrase reiterated In the post-match conference, the African coach reiterated a phrase by former England captain Tony Greig, saying- Tony Greig had said before the home series against West Indies in 1976 that if West Indies won this series, they would walk on their knees. Greig was confident that England would win the series. However, the West Indies then surprised everyone by winning the five-match series 3-0. After this, Greig also walked on his knees on the field. To “grovel” means to “lie or crawl abjectly on the ground with one’s face downwards”, something that Greig, who was of white South African heritage, had said in reference to the Caribbean players, their painful history of slavery and the apartheid in the Rainbow Nation. SA coach wanted to take advantage of the new ball in the evening Conrad said, “There were a few factors. We obviously were looking at how best we are going to use the new ball, so that in the morning, we still get a newish, hard ball. We felt that when the shadows come across the pitch in the evening, there s something in it for the quick bowlers. So we didn t want to declare too early and not be able to use that. And then obviously we wanted India to spend as much time on their feet out in the field.” Pitch is still good for batting Conrad admitted that the pitch is still quite good for batting and he had hoped it would break down more. He said there was no point if they had declared earlier and India had survived. We believe that a 2-0 win is much better than 1-0, so we will go for the win with full strength. He also mentioned the good bounce and consistent turn present in the pitch and expressed confidence that Marco Jansen and the spinners could do the job on the final day. Jansen had dealt a big blow to India by taking 6 wickets in the first innings. South Africa has top spinners South Africa’s spin bowling has recently become very strong. On the Pakistan tour, Senuran Muthusamy was the Player of the Series. Meanwhile, in the ongoing series against India, Simon Harmer is the highest wicket-taker. The team played with three spinners in two Tests, which shows a big change in their approach. On this, Conrad said, “For the first time, we have given so much importance to spin bowlers in our strategy. We have quality spinners. This will not only benefit us but also the young spinners of South Africa. Now they, too, will hope that they can be a part of the Proteas team in the future.” Proteas’ strong grip on the match South Africa has kept India under constant pressure. In the Guwahati Test, they won the toss and batted first, scored 489 runs, and then bowled India out for 201. Instead of enforcing the follow-on, they chose to bat again and kept India on the field for a total of 229.4 overs. On the fourth day, India were 27/2 in their second innings, and hopes of victory had almost faded. 90 overs of play are scheduled for the final day, although light issues, similar to previous days, might arise.