‘Only person I know who played us well was Tendulkar’ – Allan Donald talks of India’s struggles to bat in South Africa

The Indian team got off to a subpar start to the ongoing two-game Test series against South Africa. Taking on the Proteas, the Indian team faced an embarrassing innings and 32-run defeat in the first Test of the series.

It was the Indian batting attack that could not get off to the best start and failed to go big across the two innings. Only KL Rahul and Virat Kohli showed some resilience, but the rest of the batters could not amount to much as the game progressed. Seeing the side’s performance, former South Africa cricketer Allan Donald came forward to talk about how tough it is for overseas batters to bat in South Africa and how only Sachin Tendulkar was able to put up a challenge in such conditions.

“It’s not an easy place to combat. We see that every day in South Africa, the ball does nip around more than it does in Australia or England. If your footwork isn’t 100 percent, then you are in trouble,” Allan Donald was quoted as saying by Sportskeeda.

“Only person I know who played us well was Tendulkar, who triggered (had a trigger movement) while batting in South Africa rather than stand on middle-stump. He pressed forward and left the ball amazingly well,” he added.

If you leave the ball well here, you can score runs: Donald

Furthermore, Donald also offered some tips on how to score runs in South Africa, opining that knowing which ball one has to leave is always crucial in determining whether a batter will score runs or not. He also stated that the pitch in the second test of the series should be a good test pitch.

“If you leave the ball well here, you can score runs. You got to get bowlers to come to you and search a little bit more. They start coming to you, the opportunities of scoring get better. It’s an interesting phenomenon as it’s tough to bat. In Cape Town though, it will be a very good Test pitch. It will flatten out quickly, so you need to work very hard,” Donald said.