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India vs South Africa, 1st Test: Virat Kohli and band score historic win at Centurion, go 1-0 up

India vs South Africa, 1st Test: India outclassed South Africa by 113 runs to win the first Test at the SuperSport Park.

India script historic win at Centurion (Pic BCCI)

Centurion, December 30: India outclassed South Africa by 113 runs to win the first Test at the SuperSport Park on Thursday (December 30) and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

This was the first time India managed to beat South Africa in the Centurion in the their third attempt and in that sense India under Virat Kohli breached the Fort Centurion.

Prior to this Test, SA had won 21 Test matches out 26 Tests at this venue while losing just two and drawing three.

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In a match, dominated by pacers, spinner R Ashwin, rather ironically brought in the winning moment for India, dismissing Lungi Ngidi to bundle out SA for 191 in their second innings, while chasing a formidable 305 for a victory.

Pacer Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammad Siraj all were among wickets as South Africa batting line-up could not reach 200 in either innings.

The only blip for India is the continued lean patch of Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara, both of them couldn’t get to fifty in this Test.

Team India's batting coach Vikram Rathour has again come out in support of Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane following the batters' lean patch in the longest format of the game.

While Rahane did score 48 and 20 in the first Test against South Africa, Pujara departed for a duck before hitting 16 in the second innings.

"As far as Pujara and Rahane are concerned, they are trying their best, they are giving their best. Rahane was in really good touch but unfortunately, he got out, so has Pujara," said Rathour in the press conference after the end of Day Four's play.

"Pujara in past has played some important innings for us, you see these are challenging conditions, not many people have scored runs here.

“We need to be patient as long as they are trying their best, giving their best as coaching unit we are fine. Are we getting impatient? Not at this stage, I think," he added.

Team India's batting coach wants bowlers to hit the same length on Thursday (December 30) to seal the win for the visitors.

"This Test cricket, nothing is easy I feel, we still need to bowl well, we still need to bowl in the right areas. The way we bowled today, if we keep hitting those lengths consistently we will create lots of opportunities," said Rathour.

How brilliantly India bowlers did that to etch a win.

Story first published: Thursday, December 30, 2021, 16:57 [IST]
Other articles published on Dec 30, 2021