Shukri Conrad explains late declaration, says they wanted India to really ‘grovel’

South African head coach Shukri Conrad made a controversial statement in the post-day press conference when he said they really wanted India to ‘grovel’ on the fourth day of the second Test match at Guwahati on Tuesday. Explaining the team’s decision to delay the declaration, Shukri said they wanted to take India out of the contest.

At the end of the day’s play, the Proteas have set a gargantuan target of 549 runs and India are struggling at 27-2. Meanwhile, Tristan Stubbs scored a fine knock of 94 runs whereas Tony de Zorzi added 49 runs as South Africa declared at 260-5. The visitors had already taken a huge lead of 288 runs after India was skittled out for 201 runs in the first innings.

Shukri Conrad said in the press conference, “We obviously looked at how best we were going to use the new ball, because in the morning we still wanted a newish, hardish ball. What we felt is that when the shadows come across the wicket in the evening, there’s something in it for the quick bowlers, so we didn’t want to declare too early and not be able to use that.

“And then, obviously, we wanted the Indians to spend as much time on their feet out in the field, we wanted them to really grovel, to steal a phrase, bat them completely out the game, and then say to them ‘Come and survive on the last day and an hour this evening.’ So, so far so good, but we also know that they’re not just going to roll over, we’re going to have to be at our very best in the morning.”

Conrad added that they saw the effects after they were able to keep India on the field on the first two days of the Test match.

“Their bowlers spent a lot of time out there. We saw the effects of batting for two full days in the first innings and what sort of effect it had on them. Yeah, it was never going to be easy for the opening batters to come this evening (with) especially new ball shadows across the wicket. So if tomorrow evening, it comes that we have them eight down and people say well see ‘we told you so’. Well, I mean we have got to base it on our sound judgment and if that doesn’t work out well, it doesn’t.”

South Africa has a golden opportunity to make it 2-0 and win their maiden Test series against India in India since 2000.