South Africa v India 2nd Test – Match Review

The fans that were inside the Newlands Stadium or watching across the globe, a second test match between South Africa and India are still in disbelief with what they witnessed with their eyes. Heading to the second match, Proteas were flying high with an advantage having won the first match which took part in the Boxing Day in Centurion by 32 runs. But India had other ideas and managed to level the series in a chaotic seven-wicket victory and forced the two-cricket powerhouse to share a trophy.

The second encounter only took a day and a half to be finished. This raised some questions about the future of Test cricket and whether a 4-day cricket is the way to go. Is the Test format dying? Or the standard of the Newlands pitch had contributed to one of the craziest games fans have ever seen. Mind you, this is a match that had 642 balls bowled which goes to the history books as the shortest ever in the history of the game. But if you are a Statman then you must have lost count of the records that were set in Cape Town.

Before the match, India had come three times in Newlands but on all occasions, they walked away with nothing on their hand. At the end of the match, the Indians finally secured a victory which was a cherry on top as they became the first Asian side to win on that ground. Rolling back to day 1, Proteas elected to bat first then bundled out for 55 runs – the lowest total runs recorded by the side since readmission to the sport in 1992. Mohammed Siraj was the star of the show recording a six-wicket haul conceding only 15 runs in nine overs making the first Indian to grab so many wickets in fewer runs.

In reply, Proteas managed to restrict the opponents to 153 runs on the scoreboard. Interestingly, no batsman on either side managed to score 50 runs in the first innings as the bowlers capitalized on the conditions. For India, they saw 6 ducks, the joint-highest equalling the one recorded in a clash against England back in 2014. At the end of the day, a total of 23 wickets fell, a second most on the opening day in the 147 years of the game behind 25 recorded in a 1901/2 Ashes Test match between Australia and England in Melbourne. But it remains the most the game has ever seen in 122 years.

Still, on day one, it wasn’t the farewell Dean Elgar would have wanted as he got dismissed twice with a 4 & 12 scoreline failing to replicate the form he had shown in the first match. Coming to day 2, having finished the previous day with three wickets down, Proteas spearheaded by Aiden Markram, who notched a blitzing century, tried to put up a fight but managed 178 runs all-out creating a 78 lead before the match went to lunch. In the Indians, Jasprit Bumrah had a perfect day taking six wickets and becoming his nation’s highest bowler at Newlands with 18 wickets.

From there, the writing was on the wall that Proteas would have to need a magical performance to win a match. Chasing 79 for victory, youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal wasted no time scoring four boundaries to get his side on a flier before getting dismissed for 28 runs by Nandre Burger. Despite the fall of wickets of two dangerous men, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli in the end, the Indians got over the line winning by seven wickets. In what was the fifth test win in South Africa with the first coming back in 2006. It was also the third time, the Indians won a test match inside two days having done so against Afghanistan and England in the past.