New Delhi :  The visiting Indian team suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of South Africa by an innings and 35 runs. The Indian cricket fans, who had expected a first Test series win on African soil in 33 years, were shocked. They had expected the Rohit Sharma-led Team India to start the series with a win, but that expectation was dashed as the team failed miserably and lost the match that began on 26 December after three days. The Indian batting line-up, which looked strong on paper, failed against the African bowlers, especially the front row. Be it Rohit Shama, Jaiswal or Shubham Gill, they failed to give the team a solid start and crashed out early. India were 24 for 3 on the first day of the first season and later, at the end of the first day, India could only score 208 after losing eight wickets. Only KL Rahul could stand up to the African pace battery and scored a century to help India score 245 before going all out.

Kasigo Rabada picked up five wickets and Nandre Burger dismissed three Indian batsmen to keep the visitors below 250 runs. Later, the Indian bowlers looked clueless on the African pitch; the only exception was Jasprit Bumrah, who did some impressive bowling. Dean Elgar, playing his last series before retirement, scored a magnificent 185 runs and his counterpart Marco Jansen ended up scoring a whopping 84 runs, helping South Africa to 408 runs against India and a lead of 163 runs.

In the second innings, India’s top order again failed miserably and the middle order looked helpless. Only Virat Kohli managed to score 76 runs and Gill somehow managed to score only 26 runs. While other batsmen failed to make any impact on the field, India suffered a heavy defeat of an innings and 32 runs. India’s top order batsmen, especially Rohit and Jaiswal, failed to impress in both innings, while in the middle order only Virat and KL Rahul performed as expected.

On the other hand, Shardul Thakur and R. Ashwin failed to impress with either their batting or bowling. While the absence of Muhhamad Shami was clearly visible, Prashidh Krishna, the debutant in the Indian team, could not contain his nerves and was very expensive with his bowling.

It was clear to see that the Indian team was still waiting for a better replacement for Cheteswar Pujara and Ajinkya Rhane, who had proved themselves time and again in Test cricket, while Gill and Jaiswal still had miles to go to fill their boots. Still, this defeat is not the end of the world; the Indian team still has a chance to level the series in the next match, as it has done before, and bounce back against the opponents. The fans will be hoping that the team performs better in the next game and gives their supporters a reason to cheer.