JOIN USFaf du Plessis was a happy man after South Africa pulled off a comfortable 72-run win in the first Test but the home skipper admitted that he was "nervous" at lunch as India had to chase only a target 208 runs.
The Proteas, overnight 65/2, collapsed to 130 all out after losing eight of their wickets for the addition of 65 runs here on Monday.
"I knew that the new ball was going to be key for us and that if we could get wickets with the new ball we feel like we can get through their batting line-up," du Plessis pointed out in his post-match comments.
"Obviously they (India) have got a few quality players in there but once you can put a bit of pressure on them, I thought we can get through them. But definitely, I was very nervous. I came here this morning hoping to get a 350 lead and bowl to them tonight, so obviously, that didn't go to plan!
"But we've got fantastic seam bowlers and if there's anything in the wicket, Vern (Vernon Philander) and the other two guys are amazing. And if we had Dale (Steyn) there today, I reckon we would have rolled them out cheaper."
Surprised
Du Plessis admitted that he was surprised by the team combination of India who picked Rohit Sharma ahead of Ajinkya Rahane and gave debut to ODI specialist Jasprit Bumrah.
"Surprise, yes. We didn't think that Bumrah would have played. We know that he's done really well in one-day cricket but we were preparing more for the other seamers because they've played a lot of Tests. I think the other guy was Rohit ahead of Rahane. He's been in a bit of form one-day cricket wise, so they're probably just running with that. Apart from that, we made sure we looked at all other guys."