South Africa’s batting coach Ashwell Prince said that inconsistent bounce did not allow his batsmen to feel comfortable despite a good start. On the first day of the first Test here at Eden Gardens, four of South Africa’s top five batsmen scored 20 runs, but Aiden Markram’s 31 was the top scorer. “I think there were signs pretty early on that the surge wasn’t going to be sustained,” Prince said after Friday’s game.

“You hope batsmen get to 20, 30 and grow in confidence, [but] I don’t particularly think any batsman’s confidence has increased because of the inconsistency of the bounce. “You don’t trust the surface as much as you should after spending an hour at the crease.

And of course, when you face a quality bowling attack, they often take the ball into the danger zone, and that does a lot for you. It appeared that India and South Africa read the pitch very differently. While India went with four spinners and two pacers, South Africa went with a three-two pace-spin combination by removing left-arm bowler Senuran Muthusamy.

Only time will tell who wins. “We didn’t want to make any assumptions about the pitch before the Indians got a chance to bat on it,” Prince said.

“KL [Rahul], I think, is 13 off about 60 deliveries. I know it was a strange time to bat, but it shows it’s not a free-scoring pitch.

“Having said that, they [India] still have nine wickets in hand. There is no rush for him in terms of time. From our point of view, we want them to chase at least 150 runs in the second innings.

But it’s too far. “.