Luus and Wolvaardt lead South Africa’s fightback after Rana’s eight-for

India toiled hard to break the stand with Harmanpreet Kaur trying as many as seven bowlers, including herself. But they weren’t disciplined with their lengths and speeds. Perhaps not being used to such a long time in the middle affected them. Deepti also dropped two catches – Kapp benefitting both times – in the last two overs of the day.

Wolvaardt and Luus, though, reaped the rewards of patience on a pitch that got slower after the first session.

Consuming more than 200 balls meant Luus and Wolvaardt also had gotten used to the low bounce, with only the odd delivery popping up in the last two sessions of the day. Luus spent 234 minutes at the crease, hitting 18 fours. When she reached her half-century, Luus brought out the rocking-baby-cradle celebration, a gesture for the team’s strength and conditioning coach Zane Webster, who is an expectant father. She scored her maiden century in the final session, and became only the second South African to score a hundred in India in women’s Tests.

The huge stand was finally broken by Harmanpreet when she cleaned up Luus in the 74th over. The low bounce came to her aid as Luus went back to pull but missed.

With Kapp at the other end, Wolvaardt marched on to finish unbeaten. That has raised hopes of a South African lead on the last day, a scenario that looked near-impossible at the start of Sunday.

For India, Jemimah Rodrigues was off the field for a majority of the last two sessions because of cramps.