Relentless Rana ruffles the South Africans

Sneh Rana has very little pretence. Call her a Test specialist, in this opportunity-deprived and white-ball-inclined women's circuit, and she gleefully accepts it as a compliment of the highest order - no complaints. That from being once labelled a "key allrounder for India's future" not so long ago, on her all-formats national comeback three years back in England.

But, if destiny had deemed it so, Rana embraced the red ball as her speciality with that trademark grin. She's all about the long game anyway - ready to grind it out with utmost patience, accuracy and guile. Not for nothing does she now hold the record for the all-time second-best bowling figures by an Indian in the format.

Rana's second ball of the ongoing Chennai Test spun so sharply that it entirely missed the leg stump by a fair distance. Laura Wolvaardt, leading South Africa's charge after the hosts posted a mammoth 603 in just under four sessions, survived despite India's review. Not for long though. Rana got a short ball in the same over to keep straight, on a surface with low bounce, and rap Wolvaardt plumb in front as she shaped up for the ill-advised pull. Rana had manifested this, she'd later admit.

South Africa kept forging crucial partnerships for the rest of the day, and Rana kept getting summoned to try and break them. Just before Tea, she set up Anneke Bosch who had hardly seemed troubled by any of India's other five bowlers. Against Rana, the South African opener ended up inside edging one to the slips, playing for the turn when there was none.

The spin and bounce Rana extracted constantly had the batters in two minds about whether to come forward and play, and among those fooled on a couple of occasions was also half-centurion Sune Luus, beaten on the inside edge as attempted to dead-bat South Africa to safety