Virat Kohli’s Team India annunciated the year 2021 as the arguably the best-ever in the history for the country in Test match cricket, as they completed a resounding 113-runs hammering of South Africa in the first Test on Thursday, breaching the Proteas’ fortress — the SuperSport Park in Centurion — having done so against Australia at the famous ‘Gabbatoir’ in Brisbane at the start of the year.
After all, South Africa had lost only two matches out of the 26 that they had played at this venue before they took on the world number one Indian team in the opening test of the freedom trophy 2021.
The Dean Elgar-led side did fight hard with the ball, but for a team which is in transition, it was beyond them to challenge the might of this Indian side in all departments, which has been thriving on their imperious fast bowling attack and sporadic flashes of brilliance from their batsmen in individual capacities.
Indeed, India's middle-order consisting their batting strength in form of Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane — Nos 3, 4 and 5 — disappointed once again but the brilliance of KL Rahul in the first innings proved to be the difference between the two teams as far as batting was concerned.
The vice-captain for the tour, Rahul was rightfully declared the Man of the Match for his magnificent 123 in the first innings, which propelled a misfiring Indian batting side to a competitive total of 327 in the first innings. Having put a total strong enough to daunt a team which is in a build-up mode, the job of delivering victory inside four days was left on the bowlers, who did not disappoint.
With second day washed out and strong predictions of rains in the final session on the last day, India did not wait for long to knock over the remaining six South African batsmen who were never in pursuit of the 305-run target which India had eventually set after taking a 130-run lead in the first innings.
Jasprit Bumrah, from around the wickets, yet again produced a magical delivery to get rid of the stubborn South Africa captain Dean Elgar, who did look like moving in line to cover the swing of the ball after it cut back in. But as luck would have it, the ball kept moving and missed the bat and caught Elgar right in front of the leg stump, bringing up an end to a superb counter-attacking knock of 77, which came from 156 balls and 12 boundaries.
Quinton de Kock, the mercurial South Africa batsman who was set to miss the remainder of the Test series owing to the birth of his child, announced hours after the conclusion of the game that he was done playing Test cricket for South Africa.
But before the announcement was made, de Kock tried to dazzle the SuperSport Park once again with a brisk innings. The left-handed wicketkeeper-batsman hit 4 boundaries to make 21 from 28 balls before he was removed from the equation by Mohammed Siraj, who had him play one on to his off stump.
South Africa vice-captain Temba Bavuma continued to find runs against relentless Indian bowling attack, remaining unbeaten on 35 from 80 balls when the final wicket fell Ravichandran Ashwin, who also bagged the penalty wicket penultimate wicket in the South African innings.
The home team had resumed their second innings at a precarious position of 94/4 on the final day morning hoping to delay the inevitable for as long as possible. But it was easier said than done. While Elgar tried his best and so did Bavuma, South Africa just did not have enough in them to keep India out of the park for long as they were bundled out for 191 in 68 overs with Bumrah and Shami both taking three wickets apiece.
The magical Bumrah returned with impressive numbers of 19-4-50-3 whereas Shami once again tried tried as he took 3/63 from his 17 overs. Siraj grabbed two wickets and so did Ashwin as India did not have to break sweat to record a memorable victory, which happens to be their first with Rahul Dravid as the head coach of the team.
As far as records are concerned, Rahul made his sixth overseas century in this game. The dazzling wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant completed 100 dismissals in Test cricket whereas Shami, with his first-innings five-wicket haul which set up the game in favour of India, went past the 200-wickets mark in Test cricket. Shami had taken his 100th wicket at the same venue back in 2018 in the contest which India lost.
The two teams will now travel to Johannesburg where they will prepare for the new year’s Test starting on January 3. The third and final match of the series will be played at Cape Town from January 11-15.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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