IND vs SA 2nd Test: Marco Jansen uses his back-of-length lifters to devastating effect as India skittled for 201; South Africa ahead by 314

But while India’s seamers zoned in on lengths that targeted the height of the stumps, Jansen simply had to send down deliveries naturally, to record a spectacular six for 48 within three succinct spells as India folded for 201 in their first innings.

There was reward in what Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj were chasing for their combined 64 overs in the first innings. But Jansen’s giraffe vision was suited for effectiveness at Guwahati’s ACA Stadium. His feats, coupled with largely obtuse strokeplay, converged to sting hosts India on Day Three of the Guwahati Test, ending with South Africa 314 runs ahead.

Marco Jansen 93(91) & 6-48 (19.5) vs India | 2nd Test, 2025 – Guwahati | Ball By Ball Highlights
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India’s batting vehicle observed several cases of silly accidents on the hellish “road” that they had spent trundling on, for over 11 hours of the weekend. In the 30 deliveries of precision disturbed only by the Tea break, South Africa’s salvo of pace and spin with Jansen and the metronomic Simon Harmer, stubbed India to a point of incoherence.

A precipitous collapse that plucked four of his top-order mates before noon, did not ward off Kuldeep Yadav from the sights of the “road” he called the track, last evening in the press conference. From that situation where their chances began to cut slim, the left-handed No. 9 stood defiant in his longest Test innings to negotiate 134 deliveries, more than anybody in his team.

Washington Sundar’s batting positions in his seven most recent seven outings – 5-8-9-7-3-3-8 – do not resemble anything from logical sporting parlance. Once again, it did not have any bearing on his stoicism (48 off 92 balls), making it a unique predicament in the team management’s all-rounder obsession.

Despite his mercurial entry points, three in Kolkata, No. 8 here, Sundar exuded confidence no other India batter did across the three innings this series. Resorting to a viable plan on a pitch that finally settled down as a slow turner, the 201-ball association from Sundar and Kuldeep did all they could before falling to Harmer’s guile and Jansen’s shorter ball, handing the Proteas a colossal 293-run first-innings lead. Negotiating eight overs after Temba Bavuma declined to enforce the follow-on, openers Aiden Markram and Ryan Rickelton briefly shored the advantage untroubled.

South Africa’s Marco Jansen bowls a delivery on the third day of the second cricket test match between India and South Africa in Guwahati, India, Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

But it was a momentous day for Jansen, the unassuming 6-foot-9 left-armer who nips wickets in clumps, turning a page for himself with his maiden five-for in only his third match in Asia. He had gone wicket-less in the Rawalpindi win last month, but produced a crucial opening burst in Kolkata, accounting for Yashasvi Jaiswal twice in the game.

The beanpole then-17-year-old had famously beaten an imperious Virat Kohli thrice in succession at the Bullring nets in 2018, alongside his twin brother Duan, and later framed the former India captain among the five wickets on his Test debut in Centurion in 2021. Almost four years on from that tempestuous initiation — only 18 games old with the red ball — Jansen is nimbly showing his big boots can be just as dangerous in the sub-continent.

Resuming with the six-over-old ball from last evening, his first spell of 24 deliveries from the southern end had teased the most effective lengths to the rest of the Indian camp. It was a temptation that Rahul and Jaiswal had rejected early outside the channel, but Jansen had once come close to bouncing the latter out, inducing a shaky flail.

He had to wait for spinners Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer to prise out the openers, who had by then pressed to the backfoot rigours. Assessing better aid from the other stretch, Jansen swapped ends on return, crushing India with his deadly back-of-length lifters that are fast gaining reputation as a notorious wrecking ball around the world.

He can raze through oppositions in a flash, exemplified by his jaw-dropping Sri Lanka dismantling in Durban last year. Steamrolling the Lankans for 42-all out, Jansen had then waltzed to the joint-fastest seven-wicket haul in Test cricket, in only 41 deliveries.

It was more about picking the wobbly Indian batters here. When Dhruv Jurel and Rishabh Pant went heaving and slugging against the disconcerting deliveries that pumped up unevenly, Jansen had no reason to not keep going with the short ball ploy.

It fetched him four in a cracking eight-over sequence, with Ravindra Jadeja and Nitish Kumar Reddy also copping the meaner bumpers of the gangly man from the Northwest Province of Potchefstroom. The short ball ploy almost came along as an afterthought on a pitch where Bumrah and Siraj too had pace and bounce at their disposal.

“The ball wasn’t nipping as much as in Kolkata, the ball wasn’t squatting,” Jansen told reporters.

“We had to figure out a plan and when I got my first wicket with the bouncer, we said, okay cool, let’s see how long this is going to work for,” he said as superior execution passed another day in South Africa’s favour.