Bowlers on Top as India beat South Africa in the First Test match to End 2021
The Indian cricket team has ended the year 2021 with another victory under their belt as the Virat Kohli led side went on to completely thrash the home team, the South Africa cricket team in the 1st Test of the scheduled 3 match series.
The year 2021 has been quite a rollercoaster ride for the Indian cricket team. Started off the year with a historic series over the Aussies in their home soil. Got the better of England in England. But, along with the ups, Team India also went through downs. The Indian team lost the inaugural World Test Championship Final to New Zealand in June, and then crashed out of the group stages of the T20 World Cup 2022.
But, the Men in Blue (in white obviously), has ended the year 2021 on a positive note with a big 113 runs win over the South African cricket team in the 1st Test match of the 3 match series.
A big victory for #TeamIndia in the 1st Test.
— BCCI (@BCCI) December 30, 2021
Scorecard - https://t.co/eoM8MqSQgO #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/lRWDCAalIZ
Opting to bat first, India had a great start to the match with opening duo of KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal putting on a partnership of 117 runs before the latter was dismissed for individual score of 60 runs.
KL Rahul kept on marching as he went on to complete his 7th Test century. He had company from India's captain Virat Kohli (35 runs of 94 balls) and Ajinkya Rahane (48 runs of 112 balls). However, India's inning saw a collapse as they got all out for 327 runs from a strong position. South Africa's Lungi Ngidi was fabulous with the ball, picking up 6 wickets.
As for South Africa's 1st inning is concerned, they got all out for 197 runs, giving India a 82 runs lead. Mohammed Shami picked up 5 wickets in the inning, while Temba Bavuma was the highest scorer for them with 52 runs.
India's 2nd inning was not as good though. Virat Kohli's men got all out for just 174 runs in the 2nd inning. No one in perticular stunning knock. But, with already having a lead of 130 runs, India set up a target of 305 runs for the Proteas, in response to which, South Africa had already lost 4 wickets for 94 runs at the end of Day 4's play.
Indian team claimed all those 6 wickets needed for them to win on the 5th Day's play as South Africa were all out for 191 runs. South Africa's captain Dean Elgar did put up a fight but India's bowling was too good to handle. Bumrah and Shami picked up 3 wickets each and 2 wickets each for Siraj and Ashwin.
With that, India has taken the early lead in the series with 2 more matches still to come. The coming 2 Test matches will be played from 3rd January till 7th January, and 11th January till 15th January in Johannesburg and Cape Town respectively.