South Africa dominated and stunned India in the first Test at the SuperSport Park Cricket Stadium, Centurion, in a one-sided manner on Thursday.
The Proteas won the match by an innings and 32 runs as the entire Indian batting lineup failed to stand in front of the fierce South African bowling attack.
Debutant Nandre Burger was the pick of the bowlers for the Proteas as the left-arm pacer picked four wickets, wreaking havoc on the Indian batters who failed miserably.
Apart from Shubman Gill (26) and Virat Kohli (76), all Indian batters failed to score in double digits as Rohit Sharma-led unit looked clueless and helpless against the home side.
After having a stellar ICC World Cup 2023, Sharma failed in consecutive innings as the 36-year-old couldn’t contribute any valuable runs for his team during two innings, scoring five in total.
KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer and all other big names failed to create any kind of impact as visitors were all out for 131 runs.
Earlier, South Africa had their fair share of struggles with the bat as they had lost Aiden Markram for just five runs. But Dean Elgar, David Bedingham and Marco Jensen’s resilience put the hosts in the driving seat.
Elgar played his career-best knock, scoring 185 off 287 balls with 28 fours while he was greatly supported by Bedingham’s well-crafted 56 which came with the help of nine boundaries.
Jensen’s bat showed no mercy to the visitors’ bowling attack as the left-handed batter scored crucial 84 runs down the order which helped them put 408 runs on the scoreboard that eventually turned out to be too much for the visitors.
Meanwhile, on day one, South Africa won the toss and opted to bowl first, the decision that helped them secure a colossal win.
Indian batters couldn’t play the Proteas’ pace on the cloudy first day in Centurion as Kagiso Rabada and Burger caused early setbacks for the visitors and put them 24/3 in no time.
Sharma’s men looked helpless and were sure to lose all of their wickets early but KL Rahul’s courageous 101 off 137 balls helped them escape a humiliation as they managed to post 245 on the scoreboard.
Rabada picked five scalps in the first innings, while Burger bagged three.
