SA Vs IND: India had ended their 2023 on a losing note in the red ball format. Apart from winning the Border Gavaskar Trophy against the Aussies at home and a two-match red ball series against West Indies in the Caribbean, India has lost the WTC 2023 Final and the first Test match against South Africa by heavy margins.
India had played their first Test match after July 2023 and this year was dominated by the one-day international format because of the ODI World Cup 2023. India is a successful side in the fifty-overs format. But still, they couldn’t lift the World Cup trophy.
In the first Test match against the hosts South Africa, the men in blue side gave a performance that they would love to forget. South Africa totally outplayed India in all three departments of this gentlemen’s game. Dean Elgar, who is playing his last series for the hosts notched up a brilliant century at Centurion.
Kagiso Rabada and Nandre Burger were the picked of the bowlers in the 1st and 2nd innings respectively. But here are the only three Indian players who stood out with a good performance in the opening test between SA Vs IND. Before the 2nd and final test starts, let's see the names of those three Indian players.
The Karnataka batter had smashed a ton at SuperSport Park in Centurion before as well. When India toured South Africa last time, the 1st Test was also played at Centurion where KL smashed a brilliant ton which helped India to win their first game at that stadium.
But here Rahul came into the crease when India was reeling at one stage. It didn’t look like the men in blue side would score 245 runs in their 1st innings and they reached that score mainly because of the only Indian batter who scored a ton in this match. The wicket-keeper batter smashed 101 runs.
The star Indian pace bowler bowled well. But something more was expected from him. Jasprit Bumrah picked up a four-wicket haul and he was the second-best performer for India in the 1st Test match. Despite his four fer, the Proteas piled up 408 runs in their 1st innings.
That was because Bumrah was not as lethal as he used to be with the red ball earlier and he also didn’t get much help from Ashwin, Shardul, and Prasidh Krishna. In the second red ball game, Boom Boom would be eyeing to give an improved performance which could help India to draw the red ball series.
The King had a good year of 2023 as a batter and he finished this year with a decent half-century in the 2nd innings of the first red ball match at Centurion. King Kohli looked good in the 1st innings as well. But still, he managed to score just 38 runs to his name.
In the second innings when India was trailed by 163 runs, the top order again failed to fire. India was in a critical position once again as the South African bowlers had created havoc with the red cheery in hand.
At that moment, Virat Kohli played a masterful knock of 76 runs and he was the only player from the men in the blue side to score a half-century in the 2nd innings.
In India's last innings, the second top score was 26 runs from Shubman Gill which showed how well the Proteas bowled in this entire 1st Test match, which they won by an innings and 32 runs.
