Philander wrecks India, SA lead 10
BATTING COLLAPSE Visitors bundled out for 135 despite pacers handing India the advantage by setting up 208 for victory
CAPE TOWN: India’s vaunted batting lineup came a cropper as South Africa wrested a 72-run win on a day 18 wickets fell, taking a 1-0 lead in the three-Test series. Just three days of play produced an absorbing result, made possible by quality second-innings bowling from both sides and insipid batting from India. The visitors didn’ t manage a fifty, apart from Hardik Pandya’s brave 93, in this Test.
In an afternoon session best suited for batting, wickets tumbled like nine pins as India failed to exploit the advantage handed to them by terrific bowling from Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah. After bundling out hosts for 130, India made a mess of a 208-run target.
R Ash win delayed the loss with a fighting 37, but with Vernon Philander making life difficult with 6/42 at his home ground, defeat was inevitable.
Having arrived on the back of a nine consecutive Test series wins, India were expected to walk the talk by getting a hang of the bounce and seaming conditions. But the way performance analyst Pr as anna Ago ram celebrated the fall of Indian wickets in the South Africa players’ box, every dismissal seemed to have been worked to the last detail.
So, it wasn’t surprising to see opener Shikhar Dhawan again fall to a rising delivery. With Murali Vijay at the other end, he had all the time to dig in on an eased out Newlands pitch, but Morne Morkel’s bait was too tempting to ignore. Vijay judiciously used two reviews to save himself but South Africa were third time lucky when AB de Vi llie rs pulled off a stunning cat chat third slip, Philander finally rewarded for his nagging line.
Vi rat K oh li arrived with a purpose and India seemed to finally make some headway. However, Philander set up Kohli with an away-swinger before sending down one that moved in considerably, trapping the India skipper leg before. A review only confirmed it was plumb.
This was after Cheteshwar Pujara’s bat took a faint nick off another rising Mork el delivery to wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock.
In the matter of a few overs, shoddy batting had nullified a superlative bowling effort.
Earlier, De Villiersg round out a 50-ball 35 with even a limping Steyn coming out to lend support after being ruled out of the series due to a heel injury. With the ball though, hosts showed they were good enough for India even without Steyn.