South African stand-in skipper Dean Elgar admitted that their low first innings score led to their downfall in the second Test match against India at Newlands, Cape Town. India became the first Asian team to win at the venue as they registered a thumping win of seven wickets in shortest-ever completed Test match.
The Proteas were skittled out for a paltry score of 55 runs, which is their lowest since readmission, in the first innings and it was always going to be a huge task for them to bounce back from that situation. Mohammed Siraj was the standout performer, bagging his best Test bowling figures of 6-15.
India took a lead of 98 runs after posting 153 runs on the board. The visitors could have closed the door on South Africa as they were 153-4 at one stage but lost their last six wickets for nothing.
The hosts scored 176 runs in the second essay, courtesy of a piece de resistance knock of 106 runs from Aiden Markram on a minefield pitch but the target of 79 runs was never going to challenge the Indian team.
Dean Elgar said in the post-match presentation, “A tough one for us. Pretty positive coming into this game. The first innings killed us with the bat. India bowled fantastically and used the conditions to a T. Still a draw, still a lot of positives for the young players that we have within the side. 2-0 would have been really nice, would have tasted a lot better today, still managed 1-1, proud of the boys.”
He added, “The way the bowlers bowled in this series and the way Aiden batted in the second innings is something out of the world. (On the Newlands pitch) It was a bit of a ripper. Naked eye, it looked like it’s going to be a nice one. It played totally different to what everyone thought. Unfortunately, we were on the receiving end, big learning curve for the future. If you ask Rohit, he’d have batted first as well. They just out-skilled us in that first session.”
This was Elgar’s farewell Test match and he was awarded a joint Player of the Series award with Jasprit Bumrah for scoring 201 runs in two Test matches at an average of 67.
South Africa will tour New Zealand for a two-match Test series in February.
