India has been playing well in SENA countries in the past decade in Tests. While they have won series and not just Test matches in Australia and England, many wanted them to win a series in South Africa. But like always, India lost in the first Test match in a listless way to SA.
Never in the match, India looked like giving great competition to the pace attack of South Africa. They lost the toss and have been put to bat first. After a bad start, they reached to a decent score 245 in first innings as KL Rahul made a great fighting century with tailenders. Kagiso Rabada took 5 wickets and Nandre Burger took 3 wickets in the first innings damaging Indian batting line-up.
In the second innings, Indian bowlers have been wayward and listless. While Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj have been good in patches, debutant Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur have been unimaginably bad. Dean Elgar scored a huge 185 runs stamping his authority for South Africa against uninspired captaincy and lackluster bowling.
Marco Jansen scored quick 84 taking South Africa score beyond 408 and making it hard for India to comeback into the game. Jasprit Bumrah took 4 wickets by giving away 69 runs. Ravichandran Ashwin bowled economically. After South Africa finished their first innings India just looked out of sorts.
Indian batters could not give any kind of fight to SA pacers as they have already given up. Rohit Sharma got out for a duck. Except for Shubman Gill(26) and Virat Kohli(76), no one has been able to register a double figure score against their name. Virat Kohli looked in sublime form and scored some handsome runs. But the writing seemed to be on the wall with none of the others being able to stay at crease.
Nandre Burger came good again and he took 4 wickets. With the confidence flowing in after his batting innings, Marco Jansen took 3 wickets. Kagiso Rabada continued to take wickets and took 2. India lost to South Africa in the first Test by an innings and 32 runs. The First test has been wrapped up under 3 days. Hope, India will give a fight back like always in the second Test starting on 3rd January.