As the rain spoiled the entire second day of the ongoing Test between South Africa and India in Centurion, former player Shaun Pollock stated that India can still force a result. He also said that if India can post a big first-innings total on Tuesday, the hosts will be “under immense pressure.”
While speaking on the show “Cricbuzz Chatter”, Pollock said: “This ground is not great; when the rain comes here, it comes properly. But I think we can still get a result. There’s no doubt that India are in a trump position, they’re sitting very pretty as it stands. It might just force their tactics a touch as to how quickly they have to get the runs on the board. But I think they’ll definitely be thinking if they can post a big score, over 400, there’s no reason why they can’t put South Africa under immense pressure and then try and move the game forward at the back end.”
Meanwhile, Shaun Pollock also believes that the rain break will be helpful to South Africa as this might help them at a later stage in the game as they can fight for a draw as well.
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Pollock continued: “I think this rain break definitely benefits South Africa more than India because of the way the first day was gone, I think they were on the backfoot. At some stage, they might have had to fight for a draw so any time taken out of the game will assist them. It gives their bowlers a chance to recover after a heavy first day and with the covers that have been on, underneath that surface is going to get a bit moist. And in the first hour tomorrow, there will be a lot of assistance with the bowl that’s only 10 overs old. It definitely favors South Africa, this rain break, but there’s no doubt that India is still in a much stronger position.”
However, Team India have never won a series in South Africa yet. And, considering the current situation, a win of the host is not going to happen. For India, they need to pick up all 20 wickets as well.
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“If you start thinking about a draw from the start of Day 3, you can get yourself in a negative mindset. So South Africa have to almost come out and think, ‘With the conditions that might be in the morning, can we pick up three quick wickets? Can we actually put India under a little bit of pressure?,” Shaun Pollock concluded.
