India’s struggles continue as South Africa take 1-0 lead in Test series

India’s struggles continued as South Africa took a 1-0 lead in the Test series with a dominant win in the 1st Test. Here’s what went wrong for Team India.

Team India (Image Credit: BCCI)

South Africa have defeated India by 30 runs in the first Test match at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. The vistors have shown grit, confidence, and enthusiam throughout the match which helped them secure a win against the home team. Their bowling department excelled, taking most of the wickets in both the innings. Meanwhile, captain Temba Bavuma's solid half-century in the second innings helped the Proteas take a decent lead in Kolkata.

In the first innings, South Africa scored 159 runs while India scored 189, taking a lead of just 30 runs. Jasprit Bumrah claimed a fifer for India in the first innings. When the second innings started, the visitors lost a few early wickets but went on to score 153 runs, thanks to skipper Bavuma (55). As India lacked a batter in the team and South African bowlers' outstanding performance led to their downfall.

For an incredible performance in both innings, Simon Harmer was awarded with the Player of the Match trophy. He claimed four wickets in the first and second innings, making it difficult for the batters to form partnerships. Moreover, he took help of the pitch conditions and bowled some of the best deliveries to dismiss the Indian batters.

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"I felt today, it got a little bit flatter as it wasn't exploding that much. Nice to contribute. To get here, to be in this position, to be behind the eight-ball again, to show the fight shows the belief we have. I am not a stats man, happy with the win. I knew I needed to bowl well. We felt like we were one partnership away from getting into the game. I needed to bowl in the right areas," said Harmer in the post-match presentation.

What did the captains say?

Rishabh Pant (India's stand-in captain): A game like this, you can't dwell into it too much. We should've been able to chase this score. The pressure built on us in the second innings and we weren't able to capitalise. Temba and Bosch had a brilliant partnership and that got them back into the game. There was help on the wicket, a score like 120 can be tricky, but as a team we should be able to soak in the pressure and capitalise. Haven't thought about it (improvements?), the match has just finished, will come back strong.

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Temba Bavuma (South Africa's captain): Very exciting. you want to be a part of those types of games and obviously be on the right side of the result. I think we tried to hold our ground as much as we could. We knew it was going to be tough with the bat, it was tough for us, but we needed to exploit what was there. I think we guys did that beautifully. Fortunately things have worked out quite well. ,Our bowlers got us back into the game, but that partnership with Bosch, I think a little bit with Marco as well, at the end of the day, just gave a little bit of impetus that we could play a little bit better this morning.

How to watch the India vs South Africa, 2nd Test?

Cricket fans in India can watch the India vs South Africa, 2nd Test online from November 22 on JioHotstar, accessible via OTTplay Premium.

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