Cape Town Carnage
Notes on the Newlands wicket, Mohammed Siraj's Test career, and Virat Kohli's batting in South Africa from Day 1 of the second India-South Africa Test
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This was fun, unless you are a batter - but who cares about them? On a sub-par wicket at Newlands, South Africa decided to bat first and battle through to lunch. They did not. Mohammad Siraj just did one of those opening spells that end Tests. Bumrah was silly enough to get plays and misses at the other end. South Africa made 55.
The wicket still helped South Africa, but Ngidi struggled, Rabada had one overturned, and India worked out that they had to try to score some runs. Rohit, Gill and Kohli did that. The rest of the players added eight, all from KL Rahul. They lost six for none after tea. Including a run-out, and we like that, because this day was already funny, so watching two tailenders be upset at each other is even better.
To quote Ravi Shastri,
If someone has gone around the corner for a dump, India has been bowled out for 153.
South Africa limped to stumps, although considering everything, it was probably a fairly strong batting performance, a gangsta limp perhaps.
23 wickets tumble on Day 1 (JK)
We need to talk about this wicket though. Let’s start with this fun fact.
In the last 20 years, this is the best place to bowl first in Tests. That first session average was before today. It is not a massive outlier, but it’s still the hardest.
If you add today, well, I mean, now you are talking. But regardless, over the last 20 years, this has been the worst place to open the batting on a fresh wicket. South Africa knew this, and their plan was to bat through the first session.
They played 55 false shots in that first session. And while that is a lot, as CricketingView suggests, their mistakes were punished at an alarming rate.
At Centurion, the first session had a wicket falling at a way lower rate than usual. Suggesting South Africa got a little lucky. Here, India took one for every 5.5 mistakes, that is a Stuart Broad day. When no one plays and misses much, they just get out. It is not normal for the first day of a Test anywhere, even in South Africa.
You look at their early wickets, Elgar dragged one on that could have gone anywhere and De Zorzi got one down the legside.
So that is how the lowest venue in the world went nuclear.
I wanted to point this out too, all in, Cape Town is about a normal place to bat. In fact, for South Africa, it is a batting paradise, it is just that first session that gets you.
It settles down very quickly. The middle session is actually easy to bat, and maybe that explains why India made almost all the runs in that session. It is also remarkable that this day - as crazy as it was - followed the normal pattern at Newlands. It just did it to the extreme.
But it is this last session that I think is the issue for this wicket. Being tough and lucky early on is fine. In the middle, it did settle. But nine wickets in the last session, six of which with the older ball (one was a run out ofcourse) and the fact by this point the wicket was going low and high. That is when it’s clearly not good.
You can throw out the Very Good, Good and Average - it was none of them. It wasn’t unfit. So really how it plays tomorrow and day three (if we somehow get there) is what decides whether it is below average or poor. But it’s certainly feeling pretty poor right now.
But it was certainly entertaining. I kind of want them to add a third innings each just to keep it all going. They won’t do that, political correctness gone mad I say.
An overview of Mohammed Siraj’s Test career (SAK)
After the last Test, there was some talk about his form. It’s funny how quickly these things can change. I also thought that his Test record hasn’t been as good as the eye test might suggest, but his FC numbers totally hold up. His best ball is basically unplayable, a bit like Stuart Broad.
He’s taken five-wicket hauls in three different countries, which is a commendable start. But we’re probably yet to see him replicate his ODI performances where he’s had more wicket-taking sprees, especially with the new ball.
He’s slightly better than the global seam average and is basically at par with the other seamers in the matches he’s played. It kind of makes sense when you think about the quality of some of the other bowlers that have played in these games.
Siraj’s Test record in games without Bumrah is another interesting thing we wanted to look at.
With Bumrah - 36 wickets @ 30.5/54.4 in 11 Tests
Without Bumrah - 31 wickets @ 25.9/49.7 in 12 Tests
Part of this is maybe just because Siraj came up against some relatively weaker batting lineups (e.g. WI 2023) in Bumrah’s absence. It could also mean that Bumrah ends up taking a bunch of the wickets that Siraj might when they’re both playing together. It isn’t yet a conclusive metric, considering the small sample sizes in this context. If Siraj can prove his worth as the leader of the attack in the long run (post-Bumrah), that would benefit India’s Test outfit.
You can see that he absolutely took apart West Indies, but his overall England record hasn’t been as impressive as it should be when you look at his skill set. I’d love to see him bowl in New Zealand, which would give us a fair assessment of him in those conditions. He’s done quite well in Australia and Asia, and today’s spell certainly helps his numbers in South Africa.
He had a fantastic start to his Test career, averaging 27 after his first 10 Tests. He’s had a little bit of a lean patch there, but he’s worked that average back down to that mark certainly after today’s spell. There is a sense of explosion within his bowling, that can give us days like today.
We wanted to have a look at his workload. He has the 6th most overs in international cricket since his Test debut in December 2020. But he’s comfortably first for India, and the absence of Bumrah and Shami at times has meant that he’s had to take up a lot more work. It is obvious that they are trying to fast-track his development.
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