NEW DELHI, Dec 30: India goes 1-0 up in the three match series beating South Africa by 113 runs in the first cricket Test at Centurion on Thursday. This is India’s first ever victory at Centurion. India also became the first Asian team to win a match at this venue.
Set a target of 305 runs to win the first test match, South Africa folded up for 191 runs just after lunch on the fifth and final day of which the second day was totally washed out in rains without a ball being bowled.
At the lunch break, South Africa was at 182 for the loss of seven wickets with Temba Bavuma and Marco Jansen batting on 34 and 5 respectively, as the hosts still trail India by 123 runs. But after the lunch break, the remaining three wickets fell quickly for the addition of only 9 runs leaving Bavuma stranded at the other end without a partner.
South Africa had finished the fourth day at 94/4 with skipper Dean Elgar unbeaten on 52 after Indian batters caved in on a track with uneven bounce, getting all out for 174 in just 50.3 overs.
Brief Scores: India 327 and 174. South Africa 197 and 191.
Indian Opener K L Rahul was adjudged the player of the match for his 123 runs in the first innings.
In the post-match presentation, the South African captain Dean Elgar admitted that batting made the difference between the two teams. “Obviously not a nice thing knowing we lost a Test here. Did a few things wrong. Lot of positives coming out that we can use in the next two. Always the nature here. Always going to be tough because the wicket’s playing slower (first morning). Indian openers did the fundamentals right. We didn’t quite execute the lengths well. After some good chats our bowlers executed the lengths and restricted India to what we thought was a par score. New ball is something you have to get through playing here. Can’t emphasise enough on the hard work our bowlers put in to get 20 wickets. Our batters let us down. I’d say the batting was the difference between the two sides. We’ll have a little sit-down with myself and the management to strategise. Didn’t do a lot of wrong things. Not all doom and gloom for us. We strive under the pressure which is a positive for us,” he said.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli gave full credit to the opening pair Rahul and Mayank Agarwal for the way they played on the first day of the match that made all the difference in the next four days. “Got off to the perfect start. Have to understand one day was washed out – shows how well we played. It’s always a difficult place to play against SA (Centurion). The discipline that the batters showed. Winning the toss, batting first overseas is a tough challenge. Credit to Mayank and KL the way they set it up. We knew we were in pole position with anything over 300-320. Knew the bowlers will do the job. Spoke about it in the change room – the fact that Bumrah could not bowl much in the first innings (because of ankle injury), it allowed SA to get around 40 more runs. Just the way these guys bowl together has been a hallmark of our team getting a result in difficult situations. Absolutely world class talent (Mohammad Shami). For me he’s in the best three seamers in the world at the moment. His strong wrist, his seam position and his ability to hit a length consistently. Got so much confidence out of Johannesburg last time. It’s a ground we love playing at,” he said.
India is due to play the second test at Johannesburg from January 3.
(Manas Dasgupta)