India's Kuldeep Yadav (R) celebrates with teammate Ravindra Jadeja after taking the wicket of South Africa's Wiaan Mulder during the first day of the second Test cricket match between India and South Africa, at ACA Stadium, Barsapara in Guwahati.
Credit: PTI Photo
Guwahati: India had gained a slight advantage after a wicket in the dying moments of the last session on Saturday's opening day. By the end of Sunday's proceedings, South Africa had taken a decisive edge by moving to 489 all out from 247/6 overnight.
Kuldeep Yadav, the best Indian bowler with a spell of 4/115 on Saturday, didn't look half as effective and termed the Guwahati surface "road" for offering little help for the bowlers.
"The Kolkata wicket was different and this was a road," Kuldeep told the media on Sunday. "So it's challenging, (but) that's why we call it Test cricket and every day it doesn't happen according to your plan. As a bowler, you always think to dominate but when you get a good wicket, it's very important how you come back. We were in good control yesterday (Saturday) but in one session, there was a partnership.... So we are behind in the game."
Kuldeep couldn't extract much turn on a wicket that appeared to have lost its fizz and turned into a batting wicket. After a fruitless slog through the day, the left-arm wrist spinner earned a consolation when Marco Jansen played on to give him his lone wicket on the day.
"Personally I felt yesterday, (in the) first session there was a bit of moisture in the wicket," Kuldeep said when asked about the changes in the pitch from day one. "I got a little bit of turn in the first session, and after that it was very good to bat on. There wasn't any turn yesterday as well as today (Sunday). Today was much better to bat because I hardly got any turn."
Though India didn't get any wicket in the first session, they didn't leak too many runs. But Jansen produced a blinder to change the complexion of the game.
"I personally thought that we bowled very well in the first session," he insisted. "You need a lot of discipline especially if it is a wicket where you get less opportunities to take wickets. But I thought all the bowlers bowled very well in the first session, there were 61-62 runs (69 runs) which was very good.
"But the way Marco Jensen took on, obviously the wicket was good and he took chances. This happens generally when the partnership is long and you are in a stable position... The team wants to capitalise and the wicket was good for batting. So I thought the bowlers put in a lot of effort but the wicket didn't help that much."