Kohli says India wants to be ‘ruthless’ in final test vs SA

South Africa offspinner Dane Piedt took 4-56 Thursday as India stuttered to 139-6 at tea on the first day of the fourth and final test. At 66 for 3, a wobble was on, but Ajinkya Rahane and Virat Kohli showed exactly the kind of application and heart that the captain has demanded from his team all series. We’ve got the England series very close, two weeks after we get back.

Kohli could not have asked for a better start to his captaincy. Now the number one test bowler, Steyn will finish the series having bowled only 11 overs, during India’s first innings at Mohali.

The Mumbai right-hander has struggled in the earlier Test matches in the series, but was in extremely good form on the day, hitting nine boundaries and a couple of sixes during his knock.

– Dane Piedt (4/101), appearing in his second Test, in three consecutive innings, has taken four wickets in an innings. His intrepid approach in his very first Test as captain against Australia in Adelaide a year ago won plaudits from the hard-nosed Australian observers.

Rahane is one of those batsmen who may not be the most attractive, but his game is based around reliability and effectiveness. “Which rule tells me that a ball can’t turn on day one? We are criticised for our techniques but when visitors don’t play well, it’s always the wicket”, Kohli said, and the sarcasm was not lost on anyone.

Kohli also adapts when he needs to, and does it quickly. “Every Test match is an important match”. Yet, in Nagpur, he dropped the idea and played an extra batsman and four bowlers.

“He was promoted for a brief period in Sri Lanka when we were missing specialist openers, and because of that people had to be pushed up”, he added.

At the break, Rahane was undefeated on 31 with three boundaries.

South Africa’s Dane Piedt celebrates with team mate Dean Elgar after dismissing India opener Murali Vijay. It was remarkable that Piedt kept going as well as he did because he has not had the chance to bowl a lot of overs in a day’s play for a long time.

“When the team wins the players need to be supported”.

“Why are we not talking about the fact that we are 2-0 up in the series?”. The phase that this team is in right now, there is no room for such experiments.

Not everyone, however, is convinced with this “winning at all costs” approach, since it has often meant a dependency on turning pitches.

“Whatever happened in the last Test, I don’t think will leave any tattoos on the team because it was a hard Test for everybody – for India and also for us”, Amla said. The hazy, mildly cold conditions offered the best possible help to South Africa’s new-ball pair of Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan, who were stifled by some incisive bowling. A self-confessed Kohli fan, Sourav Ganguly too says that the real test lies in conquering foreign pitches. Prepared to be patient in the knowledge that the loose ball was not far away, keen enough to pounce when opportunity presented itself and rock solid the rest of the time, Kohli extracted invaluable runs from a situation that was set up for the bowlers to dominate.