IND vs SA 2nd Test: Wanderers loss a stark reminder for India that a series win in South Africa won’t be a cakewalk

Keep to your place, do your thing, be patient and Max will come to you, looking for love.

If you are India, and have hammered South Africa by 113 runs in the first Test in Centurion, and believe the narrative that this is the time history is rewritten with a series win in South Africa, you may believe that the second Test is only a formality.

This is perhaps the most fragile South African batting line-up India has ever had to deal with on a visit. This is certainly India’s strongest bowling attack to rock up on these shores. To that end, victory in the second Test should have been a mere formality.

Except, it is not.

Test cricket is about one team versus another on a cricket field, but not that alone. The moment you take it for granted, the game has a way of reminding you that nothing is quite so simple. With most of the fourth day’s play washed out, there was an air of resignation all around, when suddenly the drizzle stopped, the groundsmen at the Wanderers did their job admirably and the possibility of 34 overs of play opened up on the fourth day.

South Africa needed 122 to win — they would have to score at 3.5 runs an over when their first 118 came at 2.95 — and the lights were on and the swing-friendly clouds hung low over the ground. In quick time it became clear that India were desperate. For starters, they bowled R Ashwin up front, because they wanted to give him a chance with a dry ball on what might have been a damp pitch, looking for an early dismissal.

While tactically sound, this was a Hail Mary, pass and it quickly became obvious that it would not pay dividends. Pivoting quickly to Plan A, India found themselves confronted by Dean Elgar, who was not going to give his wicket away, and Rassie van der Dussen, who had taken a leaf out of the Cheteshwar Pujara book.

If you can’t live every day like it’s your last, maybe bat this innings like you might be dropped. Van der Dussen shrugged off the failures and fumbles of his earlier innings in this series to go back to the basics, the reason why he is rated so highly in South Africa.

A cover drive that was straight out of the coaching manual, a clever bunt through square-leg, a meaty pull in front of square and an airborne back foot punch brought boundaries around the wicket against a variety of bowlers. van der Dussen only scored 40, but by the time he was dismissed, he had reminded India that they were running out of runs to defend.

All this while Elgar was doing his thing, and a bit. Not only was he calmly missing the curling precision-guided missiles that Mohammed Shami sent down, or wearing the body blows that Jasprit Bumrah pinged into his ribs with a heavy ball, he was working away anything in his comfort zone into runs.

Elgar was well on the way to a century when Temba Bavuma stepped in. India’s bowlers attempted to hurry him, but he backed off when not ready. This only angered India’s players more and lit a fire under their already boiling-over frustrations. Bavuma crunched his way into history, scoring only 23, but he was the foil who allowed Elgar to be himself.

At the best of times, Elgar is a batsman who might save you a match, not the kind who will win you one. Yet, on the day, unbeaten on 96 when he crunched the winning runs, Elgar had his best day in cricket. He has 13 Test hundreds, but none will surpass this 96 not out, classed only as a half-century. Elgar the captain and Elgar the batsman had come together in a manner that celebrates a certain level of functional ugliness as a batsman and transcendental beauty as a winner.

India rocked up to the second Test match in South Africa, in their best chance to win a series here and make history, expecting that the game would come to them, wagging its tail, like Rover. Instead, they got Max, who padded across, looked skeptically, might have laid one claw in, and then changed his mind.

Test wins, especially historic ones, don’t come to you, how much ever you want them. You must do all you can, expect nothing in return, and only then will Max victory curl up in your lap.