South Africa won by 7 wkts
PLAYER OF THE MATCH : Keegan Petersen
Batter
Bowler
Dean Elgar goes upto the podium to collect the series trophy, and he's soon joined by his squad who all want a piece of that silverware. They're yelling and screaming in joy as they pose for the photographs. And with that, we draw curtains to our coverage of this Test series. From India's perspective, it was a glorious opportunity lost to win their maiden Test series in South Africa, a chance that's gone down the drain. But maybe, it's the rude awakening that they need to make some obvious corrections to their Test squad. Kohli didn't mince words about those issues either and it now remains to be seen whether the required actions are taken in the batting department. As for South Africa, this could be the opening chapter of a hopefully successful transition. You could certainly see the fire burning in Elgar's eyes when he spoke. It was a cracking Test series all-round, and we enjoyed bringing it to you. Hopefully, you enjoyed every bit of it as well. On that note, this is Hari Sadanandan signing off on behalf of Akshay Maanay, Raju Peethala and Siva. Cheers!
Keegan Petersen | Player of the Match | Player of the Series: It hasn't sunk in yet. It's a mixed bag to be honest. Happy, emotional. I was trying to be positive and then build on that. It's been difficult conditions all around and was just sticking to my guns. It's been a long journey, can't tell the whole story now, won't be over till tomorrow morning. It's been challenging surfaces, challenging bowling attacks. We knew it was going to be difficult - they're a high quality bowling attack, a high quality team. We just wanted to have the mindset to fight it out. Enjoying it (success) a lot. The longer you bat, the easier it gets (on these pitches). So, just enjoyed it a lot.
Dean Elgar | South Africa captain: Pretty elated. Obviously will sink in a day or two, maybe this evening. Really proud. We were thrown under the sword quite a few times this series and the guys responded brilliantly. Obviously, to bounce back after losing the first game, to believe that we could still win. Extremely happy. (On how things turned around) Challenging your players, you need characters within the group and the bowling unit has been excellent all series. I had put up a challenge after the first game and the guys responded brilliantly. Helps to have a group that doesn't have any real big names, they like to rally together and play as one. And that's crucial. Extremely proud of this group of players that we have here. Ultimately, if you want to operate at our performance levels, you need tough chats and I'm a bit of old-school mentality with a new-school twist. I laid a few challenges, even to some of the senior players as well. It was great to see the guys take my message on board. It's great to see the guys buying in to you from a captain's point of view. I think us as a closed group, has helped us to feed off each other. We've played as a unit and we've grown massively as a group in the last two Tests. If you want to compete in Test cricket and be no.1 someday, you have to beat the best in the world. I'm really happy that things went well for us. Could easily have gone wrong and I'd have had egg on my face. As I said earlier, really proud of this group. We're by no means a finished article, I can tell you that. I'm already thinking of the next series. There are some negatives also that we need to work on. I think the way he (Petersen) responded since the first game has been immense. Always known him as a good player, he's gotten into a great player mould now and it's a lot to say for a player who has hardly played a handful of games. He has dominated domestic cricket for a while now and it's great to see him do so well in the last two Tests. He's willing to learn and you need characters like that.
Virat Kohli | India captain: I think it's a great spectacle of Test cricket for all to see. We played well in the first game to win but South Africa bounced back well in the second and carried on the momentum in the third as well. There was some lapse of concentration from us as well in key moments. I thought South Africa performed better in those key moments and totally deserved the win. One of the challenges that we have faced touring abroad is to capitalise on momentum when it is on our side. Whenever we have done that, we've won games. But on other hand, when we haven't done so, we have lost matches due to 30-45 minutes of cricket where we have batted badly. The opposition bowlers bowled well this series but generally, we haven't been consistent. We have had too many batting collapses. Of course, it (batting) has been the reason, no doubt about that. Their bowlers were just better in terms of their execution and applying pressure. Batting is certainly something to be looked at. No excuses there. It's really disappointing for sure. We did well in Australia and England but that doesn't guarantee us success in South Africa. The reality is that we haven't won here in South Africa and we have to deal with it. KL's batting as an opener. Mayank getting stuck in and then Rishabh's innings this game, these are some positives that we can take home. Also obviously, our win at Centurion was special.
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Stats brought to you by Deepu Narayanan
Losing team scoring two+ 100s & winning team scoring no 100s in a series
Ind (0) vs Eng (2) in Eng 1971 | India won 1-0
Aus (0) vs WI (4) in Aus 2009/10 | Aus won 2-0
SL (0) vs Zim (2) in SL 2017 | SL won 1-0
SA (0) vs Ind (2) in SA 2021/22 | SA won 2-1
- This is only the second instance of India losing a 3-Test series after winning the first Test after 1-2 in South Africa in 2006/07.
India losing a series after going 1-0 up
1-2 vs Eng 1984/85 (H)
1-2 vs WI 2002 (A)
1-2 vs SA 2006/07 (A)
1-2 vs Eng 2012/13 (H)
1-3 vs Eng 2014 (A)
1-2 vs SA 2021/22 (A)
South Africa coming from 0-1 behind to win a series
2-1 vs NZ 1994/95
2-1 vs Ind 2006/07
2-1 vs WI 2007/08
3-1 vs Aus 2017/18
2-1 vs Ind 2021/22 * - all five instances coming at home
- Pant's 100* is the first instance since Jan 2019 of India losing a Test when one of their batsmen has scored a century. Last coming in a losing cause was Kohli's 123 in Perth in Dec 2018.
Virat Kohli losing a Test after winning the toss
8 wickets vs Aus Adelaide 2020/21
innings & 76 runs vs Eng Leeds 2021
7 wickets vs SA Cape Town 2021/22 *
Team successfully chasing 200+ twice in a series
Aus vs WI 1951/52 (236, 260)
Pak vs Ban 2003 (217, 261)
Eng vs NZ 2004 (282, 284)
Ind vs Aus 2010/11 (216, 207)
SA vs Ind 2021/22 (240, 212)
Highest successful 4th innings chases vs India
339 Aus Perth 1977/78
276 WI Delhi 1987/88
240 SA Johannesburg 2021/22
213 NZ Wellington 1998/99
212 SA Cape Town 2021/22
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Take no credit away from this young South African batting line-up though. Petersen was the star, as he was at the Wanderers but also precious were the nuggety knocks from Van der Dussen and Bavuma - two key middle order spots that probably was the difference between the two sides on the batting front. India too had their odd quality knock from their batters but had no support for that player, and it hurt them big. In a series where the surfaces offered quite a lot for the seamers, batting was bound to be the difference maker, particularly with two quality bowling attacks on show. While India's pace attack cancelled off South Africa's, the visitors' batting certainly let them down yet again on an overseas tour. It's been a trend of late, but the bowling had papered over those cracks. Not this series and you'd think that it's time for serious introspection regarding the batting unit. As for the Proteas, they'd be on cloud nine, not just due to the result but also due to the promising stars that they have unearthed. There might still be room for improvement but there surely is light at the end of the tunnel.
13:43 Local Time, 11:43 GMT, 17:13 IST: Technically speaking, it's another home series win for South Africa against India. But when you consider all factors, this is a historic achievement for the Proteas. For a young side undergoing transition, and then enduring another retirement mid-series, to come back from 0-1 down against the top-ranked side in the world is just incredible to say the least. More so when you realise that both wins came through run chases and significant ones at that. Of course, 212 here wasn't as daunting as the 240 last game but with the series on the line, the pressure was as much, if not more. But Petersen and Elgar had done the hard yards yesterday, and despite the latter's dismissal at the fag end of the day, the duo's stand had put the home side firmly in the driver's seat. It required a miracle from India today but that simply didn't happen. Maybe they went searching too much for wickets and lost the plot.
Ashwin to Bavuma, FOUR, a smash and a roar from Bavuma to propel SA to a famous series win! He had a chat with van der Dussen prior to this delivery, not sure what it was, maybe was about finishing it in one blow. Got across early and slog swept this powerfully over square leg. Nobody in the deep, so as soon as he hit it, he knew, his partner knew and so did his mates in the dug out. Mission accomplished!
Ashwin to van der Dussen, 5 runs, sloppy cricket from India! Seems like they're frustrated and want to end this quick. Was a fuller one that van der Dussen nudged towards backward point for a single. Umesh has a very wild throw at the keeper's end, wide of Pant and nobody backing up in that region. Bonus runs
Ashwin to van der Dussen, no run, quicker one on leg stump, van der Dussen stays back and defends