As expected, India duly won the Newlands Test against South Africa on Thursday, just the second day of the match.
An expected result since India had demolished the hosts for 55 in the first innings. It’s unlikely any team can recover from that.
Record books will say India beat South Africa by seven wickets inside two days with the match lasting barely five sessions. With just 642 balls bowled, it’s also the shortest Test with a result in terms of deliveries.
But India, arguably the most potent cricketing force in the world today, would have expected to breach the final frontier that South Africa has become for our cricketers. Before embarking, Team Rohit Sharma would have been sniffing an elusive series win on South African shores.
Rohit would be disappointed at missing the opportunity though he joins Mahendra Singh Dhoni as the only other India skipper to not lose a Test series in South Africa. Back on the 2010-11 tour, when Dhoni was at the helm, India had tied the three-match series 1-1.
Even in this Test, India should have had South Africa dead and buried after bundling the Proteas out in the first innings. But by losing six wickets for nothing on a difficult pitch, they welcomed the hosts back into the game.
However, the quicks came to India’s rescue once again. Mukesh Kumar’s double strike in the final session on Wednesday had given India a slight edge as South Africa began the proceedings on Day 2 still trailing by 36 and seven wickets in hand.
If it was Mohammed Siraj on the opening day, Jasprit Bumrah rose to the occasion on Thursday, striking five times that hastened India’s first-ever victory in Cape Town. The pitch always kept the bowlers in the hunt and together with the South African batsmen’s poor application — barring that of centurion Aiden Markram (106), who waged a lone battle — all that Bumrah needed to do was just pitch it in the right areas.
The pitch and the Proteas batters did the rest for Bumrah (6/61). Markram’s battle somehow stretched South Africa’s lead to 78, which wasn’t going to be enough. India obviously would have had to get at least 30-odd less for victory had KL Rahul not grassed a thick edge from Markram — who was on 73 then — that denied Bumrah a wicket.
However, Siraj, who surprisingly was brought into the attack very late by Rohit, again had the last laugh over Markram. The miscued shot from the South Africa opener made him Siraj’s victim on all three occasions in the series.
No matter how tough the pitch was for the batters, the 79-run target never tested the Indians. A miracle didn’t happen for the Proteas either, while India adopted the
T20 mode of batting to notch up the required runs in just 12 overs.
The win gave India 12 crucial points to take them to the top of the ICC World Test Championship (2023-25 cycle) standings with 54.16 percentage points.
This was one Test India won purely because of their fast bowlers. The man who stood out was none other than Siraj. Following a six-for on the first morning, he struck just once in the second innings, but that one wicket turned out to be priceless.
“I got the learning from the last game, so I just wanted to be relentless with my
length here,” the Player of the Match said.