Centurion. Team India won the first Test between India and South Africa in Centurion by 113 runs. Africa had a target of 305 runs. In reply, the team could only score 191 runs and lost the match. This is India’s first Test win at Centurion. With the win, Virat & Co have taken a 1-0 lead in the 3-match Test series. Centurion became the 56th ground where Team India has won a Test match.
Captain Dean Elgar (77 runs) was the top scorer for SA in the fourth innings. At the same time, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah took 3 wickets each for India. Mohammad Siraj and Ravichandran Ashwin also got two wickets each in their account. In both the innings of the Test match, Shami took 8 wickets in total. This is India’s second consecutive Test win on African soil. Earlier in 2018, the team won the last Test played in Johannesburg by 28 runs.
Vice-captain KL Rahul, who scored a brilliant century in the first innings, received the ‘Man of the Match’ award. Rahul scored 123 in the first innings and 23 in the second innings. This was his 7th century in Test cricket and his first century against Africa. KL Rahul got the ‘Man of the Match award in Tests for the fourth time.
Dean Elgar was dismissed after playing brilliant innings of 77 runs off 156 balls. Jasprit Bumrah dismissed him LBW. Although Elgar took a review, replays showed the ball was over the line of off-stumps, and the African captain was dismissed. SA’s sixth wicket Mohammad Siraj clean bowled Quinton de Kock.
De Kock returned to the pavilion after scoring 21 runs off 28 balls. In the very next over, Shami got Viaan Mulder caught behind by Rishabh Pant behind the wicket. Mulder was out after scoring 1 run. After the T-break, Marco Jensen made 13 runs and handed his wicket to Shami. Kagiso Rabada was also dismissed by R Ashwin without opening the account.
Chasing the target, SA had a poor start and in the second over of the innings, Mohammed Shami bowled Aiden Markram. Markram was dismissed after scoring just 1 run in 7 balls. The second success for Team India was given by Mohammad Siraj to Keegan Pietersen (17 runs). Pietersen’s catch was caught by Rishabh Pant behind the wicket. The team lost these first 2 wickets at the score of 34.
Dean Elgar and Ramsey van der Dussen then added 40 runs in 135 balls for the fourth wicket. This partnership was creating trouble for Team India when Bumrah not only broke this partnership by bowling Van der Dussen (11 runs) but also got Team India back in the match. With this wicket, Bumrah also completed his 100 Test wickets on foreign soil. In his very next over, Bumrah clean bowled Night Watchman Keshav Maharaj (8 runs) to deliver Africa’s fourth blow.
In the second innings, the Indian team was all out on the score of 174 runs. Wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant was the top scorer with 34 runs. At the same time, fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jensen took four wickets each for Africa. Once again Team India’s middle order was a complete flop. Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Ajinkya Rahane once again failed to play any big innings. Virat Kohli’s bat did not score a century even in the last innings of this year. His last century came against Bangladesh in 2020.
Kohli has not scored a century in international cricket for the last 60 innings and 768 days. In 2021, Virat scored a total of 536 runs in 11 Test matches at an average of 28.21. At the same time, Cheteshwar Pujara has not scored a century in the last 43 innings.
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