CAPE TOWN- India beat South Africa by seven wickets to share the honours in the two-match series as the second Test ended inside five sessions here on Thursday.
Visiting India thus completed a remarkable comeback after losing the first Test in Centurion by an innings and 32 runs.
Fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah finished with excellent figures of 6/61 as India bowled South Africa out for 176 to set themselves a target of 79, after Aiden Markram had struck a magnificent, counterattacking 106 off 103 balls before lunch.
The hosts completed the chase in the second session with skipper Rohit Sharma and Shreyas Iyer remaining not out on 17 and 4 respectively.
This is the shortest Test match ever in terms of overs bowled, bettering the previous best that involved Australia and South Africa at the MCG way back in 1932.
A total of 106.2 overs were bowled in the match.
Earlier, India’s pace spearhead Bumrah bowled beautifully after the opening day’s play saw a staggering 23 wickets fall on a very quick Newlands surface with inconsistent bounce.
India had collapsed to 153 all out in their first innings in the final session of day one after skittling out South Africa for 55.
South Africa were 62 for three overnight, trailing by 36 runs.
Brief Scores:
South Africa: 55 and 176 all out in 36.5 overs (Aiden Markram 106; Jasprit Bumrah 6/61).
India: 153 all out and 80/3 in 12 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 28).
This Is One Of Our Best Test Victories: Rohit Sharma
Skipper Rohit Sharma rated India’s series-equalling, seven- wicket victory here on Thursday as ”one of their best” in the longest format, placing it right up there with the historic win against Australia at Gabba in 2021.
Riding on a terrific exhibition of fast bowling by Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, both combining to pick 15 of the 20 South African wickets, India beat the hosts inside five sessions to complete a fine comeback in the second and final Test after suffering an innings and 32-run drubbing in the opener at Centurion.
”It will be one of our best Test match victories. Having never won here, it’s right up there with all the victories we have had,” the exhausted skipper said at the end of the shortest Test match in the history of the game.
He didn’t wish to get drawn into comparisons but Rohit felt that winning a Test at Brisbane, where no visiting team could beat the Aussies for 33 years, was as big a deal as becoming the first Asian Test team to come up trumps at the pacey Newlands.
”It’s hard to compare Tests which you win elsewhere. Hard to rank these Tests. Every Test match has it’s own relevance and importance. The game in Gabba. The last time Australia lost there was 1988, I think. It became their fortress and the way we won that Test was important,” the skipper said.
”You can’t really rank the Tests. It’s right up there though. That shows how important a venue it is to come here and win. Credit to the team.” He said, in a roundabout manner, that he would love to play in a three-match Test series but he would take this draw which was a good start to 2024.
”That’s not in our hand. I can’t decide fixtures, I would do something else entirely. What’s there is there. We take pride in playing this series,” the skipper answered when asked if a three-match series would have been ideal.
”We lost the first game, they played well. We won here, we played well. Cape Town, we have never won here, for this young group, this is matter of pride for us. We can take confidence from this series,” said the Indian skipper.
India are back on top in the World Test Championship points table and the skipper said that winning this game was important after losing points due to slow over-rate.
”Winning Test matches is important. This start to the new year is good. But in my opinion, I didn’t think about starting off the new year with a win. We also lost a couple of points due to over rate, so winning this was important.”
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