Sneh Rana couldn't stop smiling. She'd just picked up 8 for 77, the third-best figures in an innings. She had taken six of the seven wickets to fall on the morning of the third day. India were 337 runs ahead and had just enforced the follow-on. There were signs of wear and tear in the wicket and Rana had looked unplayable in the first hour. Ominous signs for South Africa, with two more days to go.
****
South Africa had stayed up to watch their men's team lose the T20 World Cup final to India the previous night. On Sunday morning, the women were determined to put on a good show in solidarity with the men, batting coach Baakier Abrahams revealed.
But Rana had woven her magic in the first hour. A surprisingly pleasant morning in Chennai had drawn a lot bigger crowd than the previous two days. The fans celebrated each South African wicket to fall in the morning with loud cheers, and were settling in to watch India - this time, the women - break South African hearts again.
Anneke Bosch's wicket had brought Sune Luus to the middle to join Laura Wolvaardt. Luus had made a gritty 65 in the first innings but had been undone by a sharply spinning Deepti Sharma delivery. Within 24 hours, she had to do it all over again. The same routine of staying in the middle, to block, grind, and wait for the bad balls.
If Luus and South Africa needed inspiration, they needed to look no further than their own side. Marizanne Kapp had done it in 2022 against England. Jacques Kallis had done it for the men's side in 1997, Faf du Plessis and AB de Villiers had done it several times, but most famously in the drawn Test in Adelaide and in a losing cause in Delhi.
South Africa had played a white-ball series against Sri Lanka earlier this year. Luus had a terrible outing, making just 22 runs in the T20Is which South Africa lost 2-1 and 43 runs in the ODIs. She took a two-week break following the series to mentally refresh and work on her physical fitness. She was also part of a camp to work on playing spin ahead of the India tour. But the prep did not pay off in the ODI series preceding this Test.
"Maybe, on the back of Luus' incredible knock, South Africa will be able to put some smiles back on the faces of cricket fans back home who are nursing a heartbreak."
"I think there was a stat that came up during the ODIs that, in the last two years, she's the third leading run-scorer for South Africa in white-ball cricket," Abrahams said. "I don't think a lot of criticism coming her way is actually valid if you look at the numbers. What she's trying to do and the way she fought for these teams shows how much it means and how much it means to play for South Africa."
And now, with the red ball, Luus has found her touch once again, in tough batting conditions. She missed out on a big score in the first innings, playing a loose shot after doing the hard work. But she was not going to let another opportunity pass.
She was circumspect in the first session on the third day, scoring just 1 run off the first 15 balls she faced, even surviving a close lbw looking to sweep. The ball was turning, keeping low and bouncing. But Luus had a classic answer to India's spinners: she stood deep in the crease, batted close to the body and played the ball late. With some assistance from the pitch, there were unplayable balls every now and then, but she negotiated it all steadfastly.
"I just enjoyed the level of control and confidence she showed," Abrahams said. "If they got close to her, she was able to hit it over the top. She had the confidence to do that. If they bowled well, then she was strong in defence. That's the language we're using - strong in attack and strong in defence. I think from an emotional point of view, it was a lot of hard work."
In between all the defence, she also brought out superb strokeplay as she grew in confidence. She used her feet and was unafraid to drive, sweep and flick the ball when the opportunity presented itself, each boundary prompting rapturous applause from the crowd. None of the other South Africa batters had even attempted to play the sweep across both days. She raised her fifty with a big smile and a "rock the cradle" celebration, dedicated to expectant father Zane Webster, the strength and conditioning coach who worked with her during her earlier break.
By then, the India bowlers seemed increasingly frustrated. Their smiles had disappeared. Harmanpreet Kaur was ringing in the changes. She bowled herself, brought Shafali Verma on to bowl and even had Rana bowl from the Pattabhiram End, when she'd got all her wickets in the morning bowling from the Pavilion End. They burnt a review in desperation. Rana was giving away loose balls.
When Luus punished two of those for back-to-back boundaries to move to 83, Rana could only grimace with her hands on her head. In a matter of few hours, South Africa had made her go from elated to frustrated.
Luus soon celebrated her century, letting out a roar and giving Wolvaardt a tight hug, the 7000-odd Chennai crowd giving her a standing ovation. In her 12-year-long playing career, this was just her second century. The last one came in an ODI against Pakistan last year.
"One conversation we had was that she got a score in the first innings but it wasn't a match-defining score," Abrahams said. "It was always going to be about backing one performance with another and never accepting that 'I've got a score so I can sit back a little bit'. That was the most impressive part of her innings. I think it was a lesson for the rest of the team as well. The moment you get a good performance, make sure you go and back it up with another one. Don't let the gap get too big and allow complacency to set in.
"As a senior player in tough conditions, having to follow on, the mental fortitude she showed was exceptional. What you saw was a culmination of her [work] over a long period of time where she didn't score as many runs as she would have liked and how she's trying to right the wrongs of the past in a positive way."
Her 235-minute stay in increasingly humid conditions was a remarkable reflection of her determination to do the job her team needed. South Africa will have to grind it out another day in the hopes of a draw, with a set Wolvaardt and in-form Kapp in the middle. And maybe, on the back of Luus' incredible knock, South Africa will be able to put some smiles back on the faces of cricket fans back home who are nursing a heartbreak.