Shubman Gill reacts after being bowled out during Day 3 of first Test vs South Africa.© AFP
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar analysed Shubman Gill’s second innings dismissal during the first Test against South Africa. India suffered an embarrassing innings and 32-run defeat at the hands of the Proteas in the one-sided game in Centurion. In his first innings, an unlucky Gill fell for 2 off 12 balls after brushing a ball with his glove down the leg side on the bowling of Nandre Burger. Gill was looking solid at the crease in his second innings, having scored 26 runs at a strike rate of over 70, but a superb yorker from Marco Jansen sent him packing.
Left-arm pacer Jansen bowled around the wicket at a good pace and the ball burst under the bat of Gill to rattle the middle stump.
“The length was very good, it was a fuller length, but Shubman Gill probably made just one mistake. He wouldn’t have been in trouble had he tried to play towards mid-on. He would have got an inside edge. He tried to play towards mid-wicket,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports as quoted by Sportskeeda.
“The bat wasn’t straight at all, the edge of the bat was visible, and the ball went through. If even a slight face of the bat was visible, he would have got an inside edge but that didn’t happen. Marco Jansen was getting hit when he was bowling on the off-stump. So he thought of bowling on the pads and he (Gill) got out when he did that,” added the India great.
India’s dream of winning a Test series in South Africa for the first time was ended inside three days as they crashed to an innings and 32 runs defeat at SuperSport Park in Centurion on Thursday.
With the series consisting of only two matches they can at best earn a share of the honours if they win the second Test starting in Cape Town on Wednesday.
India had no answer to South Africa’s pace attack as they crashed to 131 all out in their second innings, after conceding a 163-run first innings lead.
Virat Kohli hit an aggressive 76 for India before he was last man out but the rest of the batting collapsed against South Africa’s fast bowlers on a lively pitch.
The second innings lasted just 34.1 overs. Kohli hit 12 fours and a six in an 82-ball innings. Shubman Gill made 26 but no other batsman scored more than six.
(With AFP Inputs)
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