The last wicket-less session for India at home was a month back in Delhi, during a late West Indies uprising. But the way their bowlers were foiled by the South Africa lower order has no recent precedent.
Senuran Muthusamy’s defiance (109), Marco Jansen’s belligerence (93) and Kyle Verreynne’s resourcefulness (45) covered Day 2 in near-entirety to deflate India early in the second Test. It will take a herculean feat, and a fast one at that, for the hosts – 0-1 down in the two-Test series – to bounce back after conceding 489 in over 151 overs at the ACA Stadium.
Batting under floodlights and lavender skies, openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (7 not out) and KL Rahul (2 not out) survived as play closed three minutes before the scheduled stumps with India at nine without loss.
Much needed! 🔥#MohammadSiraj finally breaks the 97-run stand between #SenuranMuthusamy & #MarcoJansen, giving #TeamIndia a crucial breakthrough!#INDvSA 2nd Test, Day 2 LIVE NOW 👉https://t.co/J8u4bmcZud pic.twitter.com/W6BNhcAn1h
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) November 23, 2025
Sunday morning brought the Guwahati crowd in larger numbers as wicketkeeper Verreynne and Muthusamy tried to take South Africa to safer waters from the overnight position of 247/6 by eschewing all risk.
For 175 balls in the session, Verreynne’s unexciting footwork and Muthusamy’s discreet nurdles gave the Proteas a foothold in proceedings. The visitors employing the heavy roller in the morning denied the Indian bowlers any help, even with the second new ball still in play. The cherry would go out of shape in another 10 overs, but even the changed one offered no respite.
Jasprit Bumrah’s early morning spell lasted three overs. He returned for only two more in the session. Mohammed Siraj kept pounding in, but Muthusamy and Verreynne didn’t budge. With a drier and flatter surface in play, there wasn’t anything to boost the spinners either.
Kuldeep Yadav, India’s prime wicket-taker on the opening day, would resort to flatter lines. Washington Sundar and Ravindra Jadeja followed suit as the turn dissipated from the pitch.
“There was a bit of moisture in the wicket, so I got a bit of turn in the first session, but after that it was very good to bat on. There wasn’t any turn yesterday as well as today. Today was much better to bat on even though we bowled really well,” said Kuldeep, reflecting on a grinding day’s work.
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In a uneventful first session, the spectators were left to cheer for the occasional bouncer from Bumrah and Siraj, and the acrobatic stops from Nitish Kumar Reddy on the boundary edge, even attempting synchronised claps when the pacers ran in tirelessly.
A blitzkrieg knock from #MarcoJansen comes to an end courtesy of @imkuldeep18. 👏#INDvSA 2nd Test, Day 2 LIVE NOW 👉https://t.co/J8u4bmcZud pic.twitter.com/qV37KKwdqG
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) November 23, 2025
A talking point
There was a contentious moment though. TV umpire Chris Gaffaney sprinkled the spice when Jadeja’s flight delivery that hit Muthusamy’s front pad was deemed not out despite an inconspicuous speck on UltraEdge, leaving even the on-field umpire befuddled.
Muthusamy and Verreynne were going nowhere, fully focused on batting out to Tea with runs a secondary objective, only sketching 69 runs before the first interval of the day.
Playing his third Test in India on the back of a rewarding Pakistan tour last month, Muthusamy had hinted at his batting exploits in his debut Test, back in 2019 at Visakhapatnam. Two unbeaten knocks facing 100-plus deliveries had then gone unnoticed largely due to his inefficacy with the red ball in hand.
Senuran Muthusamy of South Africa plays a shot during the Day 2 of the 2nd Test match between India and South Africa at ACA Stadium, Guwahati, India, on November 23, 2025. (CREIMAS for BCCI)
Even after Verreynne was out stumped off Jadeja’s flatter delivery well outside off-stump, the merits of his silent grind for the Dolphins back in Durban had begun to come through.
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His first shot in the V came only on his 165th delivery, a crunching blow off Kuldeep into the long-on stands that nudged the visitors past 350. It was only his second aerial shot in nearly four hours, after Jansen had announced his intentions with a raspy six off Jadeja.
He would then get creative, even unfurling the reverse-sweep off Kuldeep to the fence before hopping past the nineties in practically three hits. A second mis-timed pull would prove Muthusamy’s undoing, but not before the Jansen fever had raged on.
The batters before him had hinted at certain options for India, with the balls that were pitched fuller, kicking up to the bat sticker and the base of the splice. The hosts would rue that phase in revision, not employing close-in fields and a plan to restrict the two overnight batsmen between cover and mid-off.
But similar lengths to Jansen turned counter-productive, the long handle unleashing a streak of furious swipes over the boundary. The seven sixes off Jadeja, Kuldeep and Siraj were also a marker to Jansen’s bat manufacturer to provide him meatier blades.
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The lower-order giant sifted through four different willows during his career-best First-Class knock, partly ruined by inexperience and nerves. Perhaps the indecisiveness in farming strike with No.11 Keshav Maharaj for company, and a significant milestone on the radar stopped him seven runs short of a gobsmacking century, a bridge the wiser Muthusamy crossed with three significant strokes.
