Washington Sundar remains ‘positive’ despite India’s struggles

Guwahati: As India fell into serious trouble in the second Test match against South Africa in Guwahati on Monday, Washington Sundar expressed cautious optimism, stating that the team must "stay positive" despite giving up a huge first-innings deficit.  “Got to stay positive in life. You never know what will happen,” Sundar said when asked about India’s chances after a difficult Day 3.

India's innings was further derailed when captain Rishabh Pant and wicketkeeper-batter Dhruv Jurel fell while attempting aggressive strokes against left-arm quick Marco Jansen. However, Sundar believed that blaming the collapse solely on those decisions would be unjust.

“On another day, both those shots would have gone into the stands, and all of us would have appreciated and clapped. That’s how it is,” he said at the post-day media interaction.

“Sometimes you just have to back their plans and their skill sets as well, given the fact that they have shown a lot of proof and evidence in the past as well. Obviously, execution didn’t go the way we wanted,” he added. IANS

Scoreboard  

South Africa: 1st innings - 489

India: 1st innings           

Yashasvi Jaiswal              c Jansen b Harmer                  58

KL Rahul           c Markram b Maharaj              22

Sai Sudharsan   c Rickelton b Harmer               15

Dhruv Jurel       c Maharaj b Jansen                0

*Rishabh Pant   c Verreynne b Jansen             7

Ravindra Jadeja               c Harmer b Jansen                 6

Nitish Kumar Reddy         c Markram b Jansen               10

Washington Sundar          c Markram b Harmer48

Kuldeep Yadav c Markram b Jansen                              19

Jasprit Bumrah  c Verreynne b Jansen             5

Mohammed Siraj              not out                    2

Extras: 9; Total:                                             201-10 (83.5)

FOW:Rahul (65-1, 21.3), Jaiswal (95-2, 32.2), Sudharsan (96-3, 34.3), Jurel (102-4, 35.3), Pant (105-5, 37.2), Reddy (119-6, 41.4), Jadeja (122-7, 43.3), Sundar (194-8, 78.1), Yadav (194-9, 81.5), Bumrah (201-10, 83.5)

Bowling

Marco Jansen   19.5         5             48            6

Wiaan Mulder    10            5             14            0

Keshav Maharaj 15            1             39            1

Simon Harmer   27            6             64            3

Aiden Markram  10            1             26            0

Senuran Muthusamy2       0             2             0

South Africa: 2nd innings             

Ryan Rickelton  not out                    13

Aiden Markram  not out                    12

Extras: 1; Total:                                    26-0 (8)

Bowling

Jasprit Bumrah        3             0             13            0

Mohammed Siraj     3             1             8             0

Ravindra Jadeja      1             0             2             0

Kuldeep Yadav       1             0             2             0

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