India’s frailties against spin came to the fore again as a shocking collapse saw the hosts slip to go all- out for 156, handing a hefty 103 lead to the visitors on Friday in Pune.
Despite some huge blows in the end by Washington Sundar, India never recovered from their poor batting and are on the verge of losing their first series at home since 2012.
If it was trial by pace and seam in the Bengaluru Test which led to the team’s first loss to New Zealand at home in 36 years, it was regulation spin on a low-bounce surface that exposed the Indian batters in Friday’s morning session.
On a low and turning wicket, Indian batters lacked in application and sound judgement as elementary mistakes saw the team staring at an enormous task of reducing the deficit and stay in the contest.
Resuming at 16/1, India lost six wickets for a mere 91 runs in the first session.
The sight of Kohli missing an innocuous full toss angling into his wickets, going past his awkwardly swinging bat to crash into the middle and leg stumps and leaving the batter stare at the ground beneath him in utter despair, was something that will linger for some time to come.
As he trudged back with the MCA Stadium here descending into eerie silence, the only respite Kohli perhaps got was the giant screen not playing replays of his horror dismissal until he had crossed the boundary ropes on his way back.
Yashasvi Jaiswal had done fairly well to reach 30 with four boundaries but going with hard hands to defend a delivery outside off, spinning away from his bat to take an edge to the first slip, gave Glenn Phillips his first wicket.
But as if all that wasn’t enough, Rishabh Pant’s (18) failure to read the lack of bounce while going for a mighty heave across the line against the part-time spin of Phillips, resulted in the ball crashing into his off-stump, leaving India in a desperate situation at 83 for five.
Sarfaraz Khan (11), whose recent outings include 222 not out in Irani Cup and 150 in the last innings at Bengaluru, only had himself to blame after recklessly hitting one straight to mid-off for William O’Rourke to grab an easy catch, off Santner.
Santner, who triggered the collapse by trapping Shubman Gill (30) for the first wicket of the day, kept chipping away as he pinned R Ashwin (4) leg-before off the one that kept low shortly before the break.
