India beat South Africa in first Test

South Africa crashed to defeat by 108 runs in the First Test against India in Mohali as 18 wickets fell on a remarkable third day.

South African part-time spinner Dean Elgar turned out to be the unlikely hero as India squandered the advantage of winning the toss after being bundled out for a paltry 201 on an engrosssing opening day of the first cricket Test here today.

The worst was skipper Hashim Amla’s dismissal. This was a rare case of de Villiers’ failing to pick the length as he went back to a length ball.

Left-armer Jadeja claimed five wickets in the second innings to finish with eight in the match alongside Ashwin.

Warner, who scored 163 in the first innings, helped him put on 237 for the first wicket.

India opted to open with spin from both ends and Philander was caught plumb in front in Jadeja’s first over.

One needs to commend the Indian spinners for bowling to a plan, but would it not have been great for Test cricket had the match been won purely on skills and not demands to the curator.

The writing was very much on the wall for the Proteas as the Indians had sniffed blood.

De Villiers was lucky to cross seven after television umpire Vineet Kulkarni ruled that Jadeja had bowled a no-ball when the batsman was caught in the slips by Kohli.

But Ashwin had the South African captain stumped when the batsman stepped out of the crease to smother the spin and missed the line of the ball.

AB de Villiers (63) was the top scorer for the visitors, who started the day on their overnight score of 28/2 in reply to India’s 201. But the score of 161/3 soon became 164/5 as Cheteshwar Pujara (77) and Ajinkya Rahane (2) followed soon after. Just then, Indian team batting coach Sanjay Bangar, fielding coach R Sridhar and bowling coach B Arun made a slow trudge towards the wicket where curator Daljit Singh stood.

He is called Sir Ravindra Jadeja thanks to his unorthodox ways and it seems he has taken the title seriously too. The comeback man rounded off a successful return on a memorable note, taking 5 for 21.

“After being dropped from the team after the ODI series in Bangladesh, I was busy riding horses. Just rode horses. When Ranji Trophy was about to begin, about one month before that I began practising and working out”.

“Seeing the way things have gone in the past month and half, the way we played here, a lot of credit has to go to the team”.

“I think it’s definitely a good wicket to bat first on”. This the fourth successive Test match in India that has ended with in three days, the one against Australia at Delhi and two against Windies at Kolkata and Mumbai being others, but Kohli was a tad miffed when asked about that. Elgar, I have seen him bat. had a wonderful time in watching him on Youtube last night.