South Africa enjoyed one of their greatest triumphs when they won the third test against the world’s no 1 team, India, by seven wickets at Newlands in Cape Town early on Friday afternoon.
The victory, with well over a day to spare, also gave them a 2-1 series triumph, an outcome that didn’t seem likely after they comfortably lost the first test at Centurion. But superb run chases at the Wanderers and Newlands – both times scoring more than 200 runs on wearing pitches with only three wickets down – enabled them to record one of world cricket’s major surprises.
The game was a personal triumph for Keegan Petersen who was awarded the player of the match and series awards for his three half-centuries (62, 72 and 82) making him the top run-scorer in the series with 276.
Resuming on 171 for three after lunch – a platform largely created by Petersen whose 82 was his highest test score – South Africa cruised to victory after 30 minutes of the afternoon session against a team that had clearly lost its mojo.
India skipper Virat Kohli didn’t even bother to use his best pace bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami.
Instead, he opened with Ravi Ashwin who, like Keshav Maharaj for South Africa, has been a marginal figure in this series on the pace-friendly pitches.
When Temba Bavuma (32*) swept Ashwin for four to achieve the win, he took his partnership with Rassie van der Dussen (41*) to 57 in 105 balls and finished off one of South Africa’s greatest comebacks, particularly as India have recently completed away victories against Australia and England.
Bavuma’s blow also completed his team’s third consecutive half-century partnership in their victory charge.
CRUCIAL FIRST HOUR
In the morning, South Africa resumed on their overnight total of 101 for two chasing 212 for the win. They knew that the first hour would be crucial to their chances because a cluster of early wickets could send tremors through the dressing-room.
Petersen, on 48, began a little uncertainly, playing and missing on a number of occasions outside the off-stump, but he soon settled, reaching his half-century.
Both batsmen enjoyed a fair amount of luck on a pitch which encouraged extravagant seam and swing and seam movement but India’s principal pace bowlers, Bumrah and Shami, just couldn’t find the edge of their bats.
On the one occasion when they did, with Petersen edging Bumrah to first slip when he was on 59, Cheteshwar Pujara dropped a straightforward chest-high catch.
The Indians will also feel, after Thursday’s drama, that they haven’t enjoyed much luck with their DRS referrals, with Van der Dussen being reprieved for a caught behind early in his innings and a leg before decision in the last over before lunch when the ball was shown to clip the top of his leg-stump with Marais Erasmus’s initial shake of the head crucial to the batsman’s survival.
ELEGANT PETERSEN
For the most part, however, Petersen and Van der Dussen played solidly, taking every opportunity to score runs as they tried to maintain a steady run-rate.
Petersen was getting close to a well-deserved maiden test century when he went back to Shardul Thakur and played on off the inside edge.
His 82 had come in only 113 balls and included nine elegant boundaries, most memorably those off the back foot through the covers.
He cut a disappointed figure as he walked off, but Petersen had not only made himself the leading run-scorer in the series with 276, but had also seen his team through to 155 for three, just 57 runs from victory.
There followed a tense period for Van der Dussen and new batsman Temba Bavuma as the Indian bowlers piled on the pressure, but Bavuma broke the spell when he played two splendid drives for four off the back and front foot off Bumrah just before lunch.
Those strokes seemed to break the will of the Indians and it was something of a stroll for the batsmen after lunch.
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SOUTH AFRICA: Dean Elgar (capt), Aiden Markram, Keegan Petersen, Rassie van der Dussen, Temba Bavuma, Kyle Verreynne (wk), Marco Jansen, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Duanne Olivier, Lungi Ngidi
INDIA: KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav