The first IND vs SA Test in Centurion started with the wicket of Rohit Sharma and ended with the wicket of Virat Kohli. Most of the stuff in between – barring KL Rahul’s superb century and Kohli’s fightback in the second innings – was forgettable for Rohit and Rahul Dravid.
But they need to learn their lessons from this loss, as the series can still be drawn in the second Test and there are also WTC points at stake.
The story is not that India lost by an innings and 132 runs in the first of the two Tests. It’s that India have once again – for the third time in three tours since 2018 – squandered the opportunity to register a historic first-ever Test series win in South Africa.
Captain Rohit Sharma simply admitted that India “were not good enough to win” this game. Rohit reckoned KL Rahul did well to help India post 245 runs on the board, but the pacers utterly failed to make the best of the conditions in Centurion.
While Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj took 6 wickets for 160 runs in 50.4 overs, Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna were abject with their lengths, and conceded 194 runs in 39 overs, allowing the likes of Dean Elgar, David Bedingham, and Marco Jansen to score freely.
Speaking after the loss, Rohit Sharma said: “Having been put into bat, KL batted well to get us that score but then we didn’t exploit the conditions with the ball and then again didn’t show up today with the bat. If we have to win Test matches, we have to come together collectively and we didn’t do that.”
That’s that from the Test at Centurion.
South Africa win by an innings and 32 runs, lead the series 1-0.
Scorecard – https://t.co/032B8Fmvt4 #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/Sd7hJSxqGK
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 28, 2023
Batters didn’t adapt well: Rohit Sharma
India’s performance with the bat across both innings – apart from KL Rahul and Kohli – was equally poor. In the second innings, India folded for only 131 runs.
“Our batters were challenged and we didn’t adapt well. This is a boundary scoring ground, we saw them score many but we need to understand the opposition and their strengths as well. We didn’t bat well in both innnings, that’s why we stand here,” Rohit added.
