Indian skipper Rohit Sharma was delighted after his team’s comprehensive win of seven wickets against South Africa at Newlands, Cape Town. With this win, India became the first Asian team to register a win at Newlands.
Meanwhile, India had suffered a huge loss of an innings and 32 runs in the opening Test match but they bounced back in style in the second game. Indian bowlers had conceded an above-par score of 408 runs at Centurion however they were able to turn a corner at Cape Town, skittling out the Proteas at 55 runs in the first innings.
Mohammed Siraj was the pick of the bowlers in the first innings, returning with best bowling figures of 6-15. Moreover, Jasprit Bumrah weaved his magic in the second essay, returning with 6-61, and thus played a key role in bundling out South Africa at 176.
India was able to take a crucial lead of 98 runs after they posted 153 runs in the first innings and thus they were able to dominate the game.
Rohit Sharma said in the post-match presentation, “A great feat. In Centurion, we had to learn from the mistakes we made in that Test. We came back pretty well, especially our bowlers. Even though the conditions were tough for batters, you still go to put the ball in the right areas. Had some plans as to what we wanted to do and the boys got rewarded for it. We applied ourselves, we batted really well to get a 100-run lead, not pleasing to see the last six wickets. We knew that it’s going to be a short game, we knew every run matters, to get that first innings lead was very important for us.”
Rohit also lauded Mohammed Siraj for his superb spell in the first innings to put India in the driving seat. Siraj was at his absolute best as he accounted for Aiden Markram, Dean Elgar, Tony de Zorzi, David Bedingham, Kyle Verreynne, and Marco Jansen in the first dig.
Rohit added, “Very very special, something that you don’t get to see quite often, a spell like that. We spoke about keeping things very simple, because the pitch will do the rest for us and that’s exactly what happened. Lot of credit to Siraj, Bumrah and Mukesh and Prasidh as well who supported them in whatever way they could.”
Rohit added it is always a challenge to play in the tough South African conditions and thus they have never managed to win a series in the Rainbow nation.
The Indian skipper concluded, “Whenever you come to this part of this world, it’s always challenging. In the last 4-5 years, we have become a very good travelling team. We’ve played a lot of good cricket outside India, we take a lot of pride in our performance outside India. We would have liked to win the series. You cannot get everything. South Africa is a great team, they always challenge us, that’s probably the reason we have not won a series. They are such a good cricket team. To come and win like this, we can take a lot of pride from this performance.”
India will next face Afghanistan in the three-match T20I series.
