Category Archives: cricket in India

Dannie Byrne

In India one would expect the spinners to really take over in the second innings and to become the biggest threat to the visiting batsmen. Ashwin and Jadeja are indeed more difficult to play as the game goes on as was also the case with the likes of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh and others before them. However at the present time the Indians have another lethal weapon in Mohammed Shami who sometimes saves his best for when the wickets are dry and dusty in the second innings providing a perfect environment for creating reverse swing. Nowhere was this better demonstrated than in Visakhapatnam last week when he returned figures of 5 -35 and the South Africans were bowled out for 191 in the second innings after Ashwin and Jadeja were given first use of the new ball. Prior to this Test match Shami had accumulated 158 Test wickets with 80 being taken in the second innings at an average of 22.58 compared with 78 in the first innings at 34.47. All of Shami’s five wicket hauls and indeed 6 of his 7 best sets of figures have come in the second innings of Test matches in places like Johannesburg, Perth, Sydney and Centurion as well as Kolkata and Visakhapatnam.

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