India stared down the barrel as a ruthless South Africa slowly tortured the home side by posting an improbable victory target of 549 that has all but ensured the visitors’ first series triumph here in 25 years at the end of the fourth day of the second Test. After South Africa declared their second innings at 260 for 5, India were reeling at 27 for 2 at stumps on Tuesday, having lost openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (13) to Marco Jansen and KL Rahul (6) to Simon Harmer respectively.

Sai Sudharsan (2 batting) and night-watchman Kuldeep Yadav (4 batting) were at the crease but it will take a herculean effort from the remaining batters to save the game on the final day and avoid the ignominy of a 0-2 whitewash.

The only saving grace for them could be the fact that light fades quickly in this part of the world after 3:45 pm and not more than 80 odd overs have been possible on any of the past four days. Head coach Gautam Gambhir will certainly prefer a 0-1 series defeat over a 0-2 result which would be the second series debacle at home against a SENA nation in the past 12 months. On the fourth day, the reigning World Test Champions had two targets. First was to set a target that would be virtually out of reach. Secondly, the more time Proteas spent batting on the fourth day, stronger became the chances of the red soil track crumbling on the fifth day.

Tristan Stubbs (94 off 180 balls), who missed out on a half-century in the first innings by a solitary run, this time fell short of a Test ton by only six runs. Once Stubbs became Ravindra Jadeja’s (4/62 in 28.3 overs) fourth victim, skipper Temba Bavuma declared the second innings having knocked the stuffing out of the Indian team by making them bowl for 78.3 overs.

South Africa built a commanding lead through key partnerships — a 101-run stand between Tristan Stubbs and Tony de Zorzi, and an 82-run stand with Wiaan Mulder — after a solid opening start by Ryan Rickelton and Aiden Markram. Temba Bavuma’s captaincy appeared tactically sharper than India’s stand-in skipper Rishabh Pant, who seemed short of ideas in his leadership debut. Bavuma delayed the declaration, likely to ensure a relatively new ball for his bowlers on the final morning.

Brief Scores:

South Africa 489 & 260/5d in 78.3 overs (Tristan Stubbs 94, Tony de Zorzi 49; Ravindra Jadeja 4/62) lead India 201 & 27/2 in 15.5 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 13, KL Rahul 6; Simon Harmer 1-1, Marco Jansen 1-14) by 521 runs.