India beat Proteas to claim first Test
NEITHER India nor South Africa could cope with the batting conditions on day three but the advantage India had built up over the first two days was sufficient to give them victory by 108 runs in the First Freedom Series Test match at Mohali on Saturday.
India started the day with an overall lead of 142 runs with
eight wickets in hand and a target of extending their lead to somewhere between
300 and 350.
The Proteas started the day by using their two fit seamers, Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada, who bowled with tight control and prevented India from making a strong start.
But once the spinners took over, with Stiaan van Zyl also claiming a wicket, India collapsed dramatically to lose 6/24 by the lunch break and 8/39 by the end of their innings. It should, in fact, have been even worse as an incorrect umpiring decision allowed them to extend their lead by 12 runs.
The South African target of 218 always looked out of reach and in the end they succumbed for 109 in a ball short of 40 overs. Four players reached double figures with Stiaan van Zyl’s 36 (82 balls, 6 fours) being more than twice any other contribution.
Ravindra Jadeja took 5 wickets to be named Man of the Match while Ravi Ashwin picked up another 3 to go with his 5 in the first innings.
In spite of the margin of defeat the Proteas can take quite a lot out of the match, not the least being the performance of the spin attack with Dean Elgar, Simon Harmer and Imran Tahir sharing 15 wickets between them.
The batsmen need not read too much into this defeat. There were only two Indian batsmen who coped with the conditions in Murali Vijay and Chesteshwar Pujara and they had the benefit of batting first on the first day when the conditions were almost reasonable.
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