'Wanted Them To Grovel...': South Africa Coach Shukri Conrad Uses Cricket's 'Infamous Words' As India Stare At 2-0 Whitewash

India vs South Africa: It could very well be a moment to savour for the Temba Bavuma-led South African side as they are on the verge of creating history at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium on Wednesday. Team India faces a near-impossible task as they head into the final day of the second Test against South Africa needing 522 runs for victory. Notably, India have already lost their two openers in the chase - KL Rahul and Yashasvi Jaiswal.

However, there won't be any inadequacy of motivation around the Rishabh Pant-led side after South Africa head coach Shukri Conrad's infamous words used in the press conference after the conclusion of Day 4.

While talking to the reporters, Conrad explained the team's decision to declare the innings much later, Conrad said: “We wanted the Indians to spend as much time on their feet out in the field, we wanted them to really grovel, to steer afraid, bat them completely out the gate, and then say to them: survive on the last day and an hour this evening.”

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Conrad's expression could well stir tensions in what has been a fairly amicable series, but he did mention that he was "stealing a phrase" from the infamous interview by late England skipper Tony Greig before the 1976 home series against Clive Lloyd's West Indies which his team lost 0-3.

“Yeah, a few factors. We obviously looked at how best we were going to use the view ball, so that we don’t, in the morning, we still want a newish, hardish ball, because also what we felt is that when the shadows come across the wicket in the evening, there’s something in it for the quick bowlers. So we didn’t want to declare too early and not be able to use that,” Conrad said.

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“And then obviously we wanted the Indians to spend as much time on their feet out in the field, we wanted them to really grovel, to steer afraid, bat them completely out the gate, and then say to their well-cupped, survive on the last day and an hour this evening. So, so far so good, but we also know that they’re not just going to roll over, we’re going to have to be at our very best in the morning,” he added.

Inputs from Agency