South Africa go 1-0 up after another pace-inflicted demolition act

India’s final frontier will have to be conquered some other time. A batting meltdown on the third evening in Centurion saw them fold for 131 in just over 34 overs, giving South Africa a win by an innings & 32 runs and a 1-0 lead in the two match series.

India’s effort with the bat was in sharp contrast to South Africa’s earlier in the day, with Dean Elgar (185) notching up his second-highest Test score and Marco Jansen (84*) racking up his highest in the format. In the end, a lead of 163 by the hosts proved too many as Indian batters looked all at sea against the pace and bounce on offer in Centurion.

If it was Kagiso Rabada with his five-wicket haul in the first innings, it was the left-arm angles of Nandre Burger and Marco Jansen this time around, the duo sharing seven wickets between them on the same surface where India’s bowlers toiled across 108.4 overs to pick nine wickets.

It was Rabada with the opening breakthrough once again, dismissing Rohit Sharma with a peach of a delivery that beat the batter’s forward defence and crashed into the stumps. And there was no relief from the other end either; Yashasvi Jaiswal gloved one behind while trying to leave an extra-bouncing delivery from Burger whereas Shubman Gill was castled by a very full delivery from Marco Jansen. Shreyas Iyer, too, found Jansen’s round-the-wicket angle difficult to negotiate and chopped onto the stumps soon after.

Then came the two wickets in two balls from Burger, who first got first-innings centurion KL Rahul caught at second slip and then had Ravichandran Ashwin edging to gully. India went on to lose their last five wickets for only 35 runs, and the innings fittingly came to an end when Virat Kohli, the one batter who looked comfortable in the middle, was dismissed on 76 by a stunning catch from Rabada at long-on.

The visitors had started the day on the wrong foot, allowing Elgar and Jansen to score freely and add as many as 136 runs in the morning session. And how it all panned out felt familiar: see through Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj and then cash in off the bowling of Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur.

Prasidh, in fact, conceded 24 runs in his first three overs and had to be replaced by Thakur, who in turn was no better. But Thakur did produce the magic ball to dismiss Elgar, a lifter which the former South  African captain couldn’t get behind and gloved behind. The wicket ended an 111-run association between the duo for the sixth wicket, a passage of time which frustrated India and truly took the Test away from them.

India were better after Tea, taking 8.4 overs to dismiss South Africa. Jasprit Bumrah, who looked short of his best through the Test, finished with four wickets but Rohit Sharma’s team was always behind the eight-ball after conceding a big lead on a spicy surface. And what pacers did thereafter wasn’t totally off script.

Brief Scores:
India 245 (KL Rahul 101; Kagiso Rabada 5-59) & 131 (Virat Kohli 76; Nandre Burger 4-33) lost to  South Africa 408 (Dean Elgar 185; Jasprit Bumrah 4-69) by an innings & 32 runs