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SA vs IND | 1st Test: Relentless pacers, disciplined openers help India breach another fortress

India made a light work of the final six wickets of South Africa and won the first Test of the series to go 1-0 up in the three-match series.

They were always the favourite to win after they set South Africa a stiff target of 305 runs on a pitch offering a lot of variable pace and bounce to the pacers. However, the Proteas skipper Dean Elgar brought all his resistance and fortitude to deny India an easy win on the fourth day of the Test.

Hence, coming into the final day, which was under clouds of uncertainty due to a heavy chance of rain and thunderstorm, they would have had marked Elgar as their threat number one. They would have wanted to remove him and also Temba Bavuma as early as possible to not leave anything to chance considering the bad weather predicted in the latter half of the day. 

The start was not so good though as Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami created opportunities but could not grab them completely. Shami dropped a simple catch off Elgar of his own bowling while various play and misses eluded Bumrah of that prized wicket.

Runs started flowing for South Africa as pacers' eagerness to bowl fuller length provided South Africans scoring opportunities. Having seen Elgar getting comfortable with over the wicket angle and most importantly, the narrowing gap between the required number of runs, Bumrah switched to round the wicket angle and produced yet another big wicket just when things were looking a bit tougher for India. He has been an on-demand service delivery pacer for India and there was no stopping of his heroics on the final day of this Test.

After Elgar’s departure, Temba Bavuma was the only prominent thorn in India’s flesh and while he carried on his resilient way from the first innings, there was enough callousness from Quinton de Kock at the other end to keep Indian pacers, especially Mohammad Siraj interested. The pacer troubled him around off stump with the back of length deliveries and he committed all the mistakes he could do to keep India in the game.

Another chopped on to his wickets ended de Kock’s stay at the crease and his opportunity in the series as he would be leaving the camp on his paternity leave. 

Mohammad Shami recovered quickly from his misses in the first hour of the day and found the perfect line and length to dismiss Wiaan Mulder and Marco Jansen.

Jansen’s wicket brought India to touching distance of another fortress-breaching win and Kohli used the principle of horses for courses to perfect effect with Ravichandran Ashwin against Kagiso Rabada. The left-hander played some crisp shots in the first innings off Ashwin and India would’ve been aware of his eagerness to drive off-spinners from the crease. 

Ashwin threw the bait and Rabada took the challenge but only to spoon a dolly to Mohammad Shami, who was more than ready to not repeat another drop catch. Lungi Ngidi was no match to Ashwin’s bounce and inside-edged to Cheteshwar Pujara and gave India an exhilarating win to finish off one of the finest years they have had in their history of playing the longest format.

KL Rahul was adjudged Man of the Match for a splendid hundred in the first innings of the game that laid the platform for a big score for India which Kohli rated the “difference” between the sides.

The second Test of the series will be played at the Wanderers Stadium, in Johannesburg from January 03.

 

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SA vs IND | 1st Test | Twitter reacts as India breach yet another fortress, beat Proteas at Centurion

The Indian cricket team has ended its year on a high in Test cricket as it breached yet another fortress to register yet another memorable win. The year which started with Ajinkya Rahane’s second-string Indian team beating the Australian side on its fortress Gabba to lift the Test series 2-1, ended with the Virat Kohli’s men becoming the first Asian side to register a Test victory at Centurion in South Africa. In this match, it wasn’t easy at all to bat and was shown in the collapses that both sides had in the game. Thus the first innings tota of India would now be regarded as the key point in the game. The century by Lokesh Rahul and a good hand by Mayank Agarwal and Ajinkya Rahane to take the team past 300 was very crucial as in the second, third and fourth innings, neither of the two teams was able to get past even the 200 run mark. Similarly, Mohammad Shami was on the mark right from the word go as he took five wickets in the first innings, playing an important role in restricting South Africa to 199. In the second innings too, his three wickets came at very crucial junctures in the game and stopped the Proteas from trying to save the game. From South Africa’s point of view, Dean Elgar and Temba Bavuma were the two batters who tried to occupy the crease as there was a lack of application from the rest of the top order batters. As for bowlers, Lungi Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada and debutant Marco Jansen all bowled with purpose, but it was mainly the batters who failed big time.

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SA vs IND | 1st Test, Day 5: India quash Proteas' resistance, become first Asian side to win in Centurion

India quashed South Africa’s resistance right after the lunch interval on the fifth and final day to win the first Test and went 1-0 up in the three-match long. Coming into the final day, India needed to take six wickets while South Africa needed 211 runs to win the game. The unbeaten batsman Dean Elgar and Temba Bavuma led a strong fightback with a rapid first hour where they hit boundaries but Jasprit Bumrah once again put his hands up and dismissed Elgar. Quinton de Kock could not last long although he hit a brisk 21 and handed Mohammad Siraj his second wicket of the innings. Mohammad Siraj produced two jaffas to dismiss Wian Mulder and Marco Jansen and Ravichandran Ashwin came into the picture with the last two wickets of Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi. India won the game by 113 runs and will wait for South Africa to respond in the remaining two games of the series to be played in Johannesburg and Cape Town. India quashed South Africa’s resistance right after the lunch interval on the fifth and final day to win the first Test and become the first Asian team to win a Test match at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. Coming into the final day, India needed to take six wickets while South Africa needed 211 runs to win the game. The unbeaten batsman Dean Elgar and Temba Bavuma led a strong fightback with a rapid first hour where they hit boundaries but Jasprit Bumrah once again put his hands up and dismissed Elgar. Quinton de Kock could not last long although he hit a brisk 21 and handed Mohammad Siraj his second wicket of the innings. Mohammad Siraj produced two jaffas to dismiss Wian Mulder and Marco Jansen and Ravichandran Ashwin came into the picture with the last two wickets of Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi. India won the game by 113 runs and have taken a 1-0 lead in the series. They will now wait for South Africa to respond in the remaining two games of the series to be played in Johannesburg and Cape Town.