Image Credit- AP
A New Year’s test in South Africa is always a riveting
affair. But not even the most ardent cricket lover in South Africa would have
envisaged the events that unfolded yesterday. The magnitude of the situation
becomes even more bigger when you realize that this was the FIRST day of this
test match.
23 wickets. Only 7 double-digit scores. Biblical collapses.
Incisive bowling. And some aggressive batting as well. This day had it all.
Somehow, at the end of the madness, it is the visitors India who find
themselves ahead of the game despite having the worst collapse in Test Cricket
history. It was that type of day.
It started with
South Africa winning the toss and opting to bat first in what was stand-in
skipper Dean Elgar’s final test. Elgar chose to bat, and in the first innings,
South Africa went out of the game in 23.2 overs when Mohammed Siraj bowled him
off an inside edge for four runs. In a single session, Siraj’s new-ball spell
of 9-3-15-6 dismissed South Africa for 55, the lowest score ever against India
in Test cricket. Then, it took fewer than ten overs for India to grab the lead,
with Rohit Sharma cruising at a run-a-ball during the opening exchanges. But
Lungi Ngidi’s triple-strike set off a late collapse that forced South Africa
back into the contest.
The first batsman out of the game, Aiden Markram, then
made it through 51 balls in South Africa’s second innings to get his team even
closer to par. However, India still hold a sizable advantage of 36, which looks
even larger from this angle.