Jansen's flying brick, Muthusamy's stoic wall

Was that a third bat Marco Jansen had to call for during his innings on Sunday? A fourth? Maybe a fifth? It was easy to lose count, because when he wasn't hitting India's bowlers to a surprisingly small part of Barsapara Stadium in Guwahati he was breaking bats.

But while Jansen's weapon—an apt synonym considering he wielded his willow with viscerally vicious intent—kept changing, his focus didn't. He was determined to hit South Africa into dominance in the second Test, and he succeeded.

In all his 31 innings before Sunday, Jansen had lifted just six sixes. On Sunday he launched seven: five over long-on, the others beyond midwicket; four off Ravindra Jadeja, two off Kuldeep Yadav and the other off Mohammed Siraj.

That put Jansen in rarefied company. No South Africa player has hit more than seven sixes in a Test innings. Only AB de Villiers and Quinton de Kock hit as many as seven. And they can't bowl for toffee.

Shahid Afridi could. Until Sunday the seven sixes he hit in Lahore in January 2006 reigned alone as the most hoisted in an innings against India.

Among players who have batted at No. 9 or lower, only Tim Southee has hit more sixes in an innings. Southee cleared nine of them for take-off on debut against England in Napier in March 2008.

Siraj was the last bowler to feel Jansen's wrath on Sunday, and he was hit the hardest. That ball, which was pitched short and on middle, boomed off Jansen's bat and ballooned over the midwicket boundary at an arresting speed. The stroke was laced with even more of the languid malevolence than that which powered the rest of his innings.

Blessed with legs longer than some people are tall, arms that would drag in the dust if his legs weren't that length, and a lean, torqued torso to separate arms from legs, Jansen climbed into the bowling with a cold, calm fury. His bat—bats, actually—described great swooping curves of lusty aggression that connected, more often than not, with a pleasing crack. Small wonder they didn't last long.

The assault continued until Jansen tried to nudge Yadav's googly into the covers. The ball took the bottom edge of the angled bat, went straight down and onto the pitch—and leapt from there onto the stumps.

Gone for 93—78 of them hammered in fours and sixes—off 91, an anguished Jansen cursed his way off the field without so much as raising bat No. 3, 4 or 5 to acknowledge the warm applause he had earned. When you've reached 50 nine times in your other 68 first-class innings without making a century, and you have the chance to do so in India with Jasprit Bumrah and Jadeja in the attack, missing out by seven runs can feel worse than making a duck.

Here's hoping that emotion didn't last long, and that someone told Jansen his intervention effected a revolution. Before he took guard South Africa's approach was to remain at the crease while the flawless pitch remained good for batting, and to deny the Indians the privilege unto the surface had started to deteriorate. Runs mattered, but not as much as time.

Jansen's bracing blast changed that equation. And, without Senuran Muthusamy at the other end for 17.4 overs of his innings, he would not have been able to play the way he did for as long as he did.

If Jansen's performance could be likened to a flying brick, Muthusamy's was a wall of stoicism. A more contrasting pair of innings you would struggle to find.

Where Jansen ripped and roared, Muthusamy stood and stored. He was there for almost five hours compared to Jansen's less than three. His strike rate, 52.91, was nearly half Jansen's 102.19.

While Jansen reaped almost three-quarters of his runs from midwicket to long-on, Muthusamy hit none of his 10 fours there. They went instead through point, backward point, fine leg and square leg.

Muthusamy faced 115 more balls than Jansen and hit five fewer sixes—not least because he had to deal with the second new ball, which was 40 overs old when Jansen entered the fray.

Muthusamy's day began in the company of Kyle Verreynne, who helped him add 88 off 237 deliveries. The 97 he shared with Jansen flew off 107. Along with the innings itself, Jansen's arrival sparked something in Muthusamy. He scored 42 in each of those partnerships. With Verreynne it took him 115 balls. With Jansen? Forty-six.

Jansen never looked like getting out, until he did. Muthusamy seemed gone for all money for 48 when he swept at Jadeja and was struck bang in front. Rod Tucker agreed with the beseeching Indians. Muthusamy referred, and the gizmos revealed the slightest speck—it wouldn't be right to call it a spike—on the glove.

Another 29.5 overs had passed when Muthusamy put Siraj through point for two to complete his first Test century. Jansen met him mid-pitch to offer his congratulations. And no doubt resolved to score his own hundred. Alas, it wasn't to be.

Muthusamy made it to 109 before top-edging Siraj's bouncer into fine leg's hands. Jansen's clunky demise ended the innings at 489—the only instance of South Africa reaching 400 in the 18 innings they have had there since they declared at 558/6 in Nagpur in February 2010.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and KL Rahul negotiated 6.1 overs comfortably enough before bad light ended play. India will resume on Monday 480 behind.

Jansen and Muthusamy are starkly different cricketers, with both bat and ball. But they are similar characters—soft-spoken, introverted, self-effacing. Getting them to talk about themselves is about as difficult as batting against them or bowling to them.

"I thought [Verreynne] batted really well," Muthusamy told a press conference. "That was an awesome partnership to set up the innings. And Marco was sublime when he came in. He's got fantastic levers, he's a clean striker of the ball, and he really showed his skills today. That was an awesome treat to watch from the other end. It was attritional cricket until Marco came in and played his shots beautifully."

Where might the match go from here?

"Simon [Harmer], Kesh [Harmer], and myself have got a lot of experience. Simon's got over 1,000 first-class wickets, and Kesh has over 200 international wickets."

This from the bowler who took 6/117 and 5/57 in Lahore last month, and followed that up with an unbeaten 89 in Lahore.

Muthusamy made his debut on South Africa's unhappy tour to India in October 2019. He played in the first two of the three Tests, which the home side won by 203 runs, an innings and 137 runs and an innings and 202 runs. Muthusamy scored 98 runs in four innings and took 2/180. He didn't play for South Africa again until the Centurion Test against West Indies in February 2023.

"I debuted here and went back into the wilderness," Muthusamy said. "Cricket is such a journey that you just try to take it one day at a time. You try not to think too far ahead.

"There were times, especially after 2019, when I wasn't sure if I'd ever play Test cricket again, and certainly not in India after we lost that series.

"So I'm really grateful for the support I've got, for the people who are really close to me—the coaches at home, the support staff here, the players, my family, my friends. They've been incredible."

Good thing Muthusamy is a decent sort. Should Jansen be out of unbroken bats, he knows who would lend him a few.