India vs South Africa: Hosts suffer a new low as Proteas clinch series win

The abject surrender on a good pitch, added another sordid chapter to India's dwindling fortunes in the traditional format under Gautam Gambhir's reign.

Guwahati: As South Africa broke into ecstatic celebrations after posting a 408-run win to end their 25-year duck on Indian soil, the statisticians had their hands full. Biggest defeat for India in terms of runs both home and away, second series sweep by a visiting team in successive seasons, fifth loss in the last seven Tests at home as opposed to 50 Tests across 13 seasons for their previous five defeats... The list was endless and humiliation unquantifiable.

The abject surrender on a good Test pitch, added another sordid chapter to India's dwindling fortunes in the traditional format under head coach Gautam Gambhir's reign.

Not much hope was left of levelling the series after South Africa had left India's second innings reeling at 27/2 on fourth evening.

Staring at a 522-run deficit, the hosts faced a herculean task of saving the match on the final day, and while another home defeat was a bitter pill swallow, the manner of the defeat was hard to digest. Chasing a target of 549, India's innings came to a stuttering halt well before lunch (the second session in this Test) at 140 all out in 63.5 overs here at the ACA Stadium on Wednesday.

The 2-0 win helped the Proteas clinch a Test series in India after a gap of 25 years in 2000 when Hansie Crinje's men handed Sachin Tendulkar's men a similar defeat.  

Only Ravindra Jadeja (54) looked the part till he lasted while Washington Sundar was the second highest run-getter with 16, the same number of runs that extras contributed to their total. India's second innings lasted all of 266 minutes. To put that in perspective, Tristan Stubbs, one of the sought-after T20 players in the world, alone spent 224 minutes at the crease.

Simon Harmer (6/37), who ended the series with 17 wickets to be adjudged Player of the Series, became the latest journeyman spinner to torment Indian batters and expose their Test batting chinks like few in the past.

Resuming their innings, India put up pockets of resistance but there were no long, sustained partnerships that could have pushed them towards twilight that had consistently shaved off almost 10 overs each on all four previous days.   

Sai Sudharsan received a 'life' when Marco Jansen overstepped while Aiden Markram, who otherwise took a record nine catches for the match, reprieved Kuldeep Yadav off Harmer. But the off-spinner wasn't going to be denied for too long. He had Kuldeep's middle stump knocked off with an arm-ball.

Harmer made it two in the same over with a similar delivery only this time to a right-hander. The arm ball from over the wicket going along the angle and taking an edge off a forward-pressing Dhruv Jurel, whose two-ball duck earned him a pair for the match. Rishabh Pant got out cheaply once again, but the only mitigating factor was he didn't go for an extravagant shot. 

With win out of the equation, India needed to bat time but that didn't mean you defended every ball on a surface where you could receive a ball with your name on it anytime. A sweep here, a reverse sweep there or an aerial shot by reaching the pitch of the ball could have forced South African spinners to bowl more defensive lines and lengths.

This one-dimensional approach, however, allowed them, especially Harmer, to bowl the lengths they wanted. On pitches that throw up surprises every now and then and with so much time left in the day, sometimes, a little bit of aggro can be an ideal mode of defence. Jadeja showed the way with this approach but the rest of the batters didn't measure up to the task.   

SCORE BOARD

SOUTH AFRICA (I Innings): 489

INDIA (I Innings): 201

SOUTH AFRICA (II Innings): 260/5 decl

INDIA (II Innings; O/n: 27/2):

Jaiswal c Verreynne b Jansen 13

(19b, 1x4, 1x6)  

Rahul b Harmer 6

(30b)

Sudharsan c Markram b Muthusamy 14

(139b, 1x4)

Kuldeep b Harmer 5

(38b, 1x4)

Jurel c Markram b Harmer 2
(3b)

Pant c Markram b Harmer 13

(16b, 1x4, 1x6)

Jadeja st Verreynne b Maharaj 54

(87b, 4x4, 2x6)

Washington c Markram b Harmer 16

(44b, 2x4)

Nitish c Verreynne b Harmer 0

(3b)

Bumrah (not out) 1

(2b)

Siraj c Jansen b Maharaj 0

(4b)      

Extras (B-5, LB-9, NB-2) 16

Total (all out, 63.5 overs) 140

Fall of wickets: 1-17 (Jaiswal), 2-21 (Rahul), 3-42 (Kuldeep), 4-42 (Jurel), 5-58 (Pant), 6-95 (Sudharsan), 7-130 (Washington), 8-138 (Washington), 9-140 (Jadeja).      

Bowling: Jansen 15-7-23-1 (nb-1), Mulder 4-1-6-0 (nb-1), Harmer 23-6-37-6, Maharaj 12.5-1-37-2, Markram 2-0-2-0, Muthusamy 7-1-21-1.

Result & series: South Africa won by 408 runs and clinched the two-Test series 2-0.

PoM: Marco Jansen; PoS: Simon Harmer.