India vs South Africa: Rohit Sharma and Co get a reality check with innings thrashing in Centurion

“We were not good enough to win.”

Rohit Sharma neatly summed up India’s performance in Centurion during the post-match presentation, in which he was interviewed as the losing captain for the second time in as many matches. For a team that entered the two-Test series against South Africa with the favourites billing only to get rolled over inside three days, Rohit’s words were rather polite and putting it mildly.

It’s been over 30 years since India first toured the ‘Rainbow Nation’ and since then, a Test series victory has somehow eluded them time and again. And it was no different at Centurion’s SuperSport Park this week, where the Indians ended up crumbling to an innings and 32-run loss to concede a 1-0 lead.

India were outbatted, outbowled and outfielded by a side that had not played Test cricket since March and had lost their skipper to injury shortly after toss on the opening day. And yet they ended up dishing out a performance that was reminiscent of the team’s struggles in their early tours of South Africa.

Read: Rohit Sharma laments India’s abject surrender in Centurion

There had been plenty of chatter around Rohit and Co finally scaling the ‘Final Frontier’ — a term made popular by ex-Australia captain Steve Waugh that has since been overused in Indian cricketing circles — in the ongoing tour. The defeat however, has ensured that it remains just a distant dream for now and discussions around it are shelved until their next trip to this part of the world.

India had entered the series with little preparation, having played just one intra-squad game in Pretoria that was their only bit of red-ball action since the second Test against West Indies in July. Few in the visitors’ camp, however, would have expected the rude jolt that they were in for.

One-man shows

That only individual that stood up and decided to take the attack to the Proteas pace quartet in either Indian innings was one of the primary reasons behind India’s abject surrender.

KL Rahul produced what Sunil Gavaskar would later describe as one of the finest Test knocks by an Indian during the first innings. The wicketkeeper-batter dished out a fighting 101 at a time when the South African seamers were breathing fire in what was the toughest phase for batting. Virat Kohli would then produce a stroke-filled 76 off 82 deliveries in the second essay and was well on his way to bringing up Test century number 30 until circumstances forced him to play a rash shot too many.

Quotes | It’s time we drool over our own: South Africa coach Shukri Conrad

Both Rahul and Kohli, however, fought lone battles in the two innings and ended up scoring the lion’s share of the runs that the visitors would manage. Not only was Rahul the two centurions at Centurion, he was also the only Indian to cross 40 in the first innings. And Kohli would account for more than half of the 131 runs that India managed in their second essay — which still was 54 short of Dean Elgar’s score in his final appearance at his home ground.

As far as analysing what went wrong with the batting department is concerned, the captain will have to start from his own performances — getting dismissed for scores of 5 and 0 in what was a sorry return to action after spending a month away from the game.

Read | Sunil Gavaskar rips apart ‘listless’ Rohit Sharma and Co

Given the sheer quality of the South African attack, India needed to safely negotiate the new-ball spells from Kagiso Rabada and Nandre Burger and build a solid partnership from thereon if they were to stand a chance of posting a solid total on the board. Instead, the Indian top three could collect a total of 55 runs in the two innings, 26 of those runs coming off Shubman Gill’s bat on Thursday.

As a result, Kohli and the rest of the middle order found themselves in situations where the hosts was already firmly in control after collecting two or three wickets in quick fashion. And this is where Rohit should have done better as the senior member of the side and set an example for his junior colleagues, especially young Yashasvi Jaiswal who had it a lot easier on debut in the Caribbean.

The dismissals, too, were a mix of poor shot selection and succumbing to near-unplayable deliveries.

Kagiso Rabada celebrates after castling Rohit Sharma on Day 3 of the first Test in Centurion. Reuters

Rohit, meanwhile, had a bit of both. He got enticed into playing a pull on Tuesday morning and hitting it straight down long leg’s throat to getting cleaned up by a pearler two days later, both off Rabada’s bowling. Kohli, too, was dismissed for 38 by the same bowler on Day 1, once again deceived by the slight deviation away from off that caught his edge.

As for Burger, who had a Test debut to remember with seven wickets, he had a good time varying his lengths while bowling at a rapid pace. The 28-year-old had Jaiswal caught-behind with away movement on the opening day and would set the same batter up with a sharp bouncer on Day 3.

He was off to a fiery start with a catch to dismiss Rohit followed by the dismissals of Jaiswal and Gill in successive overs, all in the morning session of the opening day. Two days later, he would effectively end India’s hopes of mounting a late comeback by dismissing Rahul for 4, eventually finishing with 4/33 in that innings.

Lack of bowling depth

It wasn’t just in the batting department where the Indians witnessed lone battles. Jasprit Bumrah bowled well after India were bowled out for 245 and finished the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4/69. South Africa, however, would still end up with 408 on the board despite Bavuma’s absence, and this was down to the leader of the Indian attack finding little support from the other end.

Photos | South Africa thrash India inside three days

“This was not a 400-run wicket and we gave too many runs. We sprayed the ball all around, but it happens. One can’t depend on one particular bowler, the other three pacers also needed to perform their roles, we could learn from how South Africa bowled,” skipper Rohit said in the press conference after the game, summing up what went wrong as far as their bowling performance was concerned.

Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna leaked 101 and 93 runs respectively while grabbing a wicket each. AP

Both Bumrah and Siraj started off on a tidy note, with the latter getting rid of opener Aiden Markram in the fourth over of the innings. With South Africa having collected just 11 runs at that point, the early dismissal raised hopes of India fighting back with the ball and collecting a first innings lead.

The two lead Indian pacers would do a decent job in keeping the opposition batters in check, with Bumrah keeping his economy under three while collecting four wickets across two days. Siraj was relatively expensive but did break Elgar’s marathon fourth-wicket partnership with debutant David Bedingham later in the day to allow the Indians to claw back late on Day 2.

It was the manner with which Prasidh Krishna and Shardul Thakur were tonked all over the SuperSport Park that will have the Indians worried with regards to the depth in the pace department. Both Thakur and Krishna would collect a wicket each, the latter dismissing Kyle Verreynne to grab his maiden wicket on Test debut, but would also concede 101 and 93 runs respectively.

Read | Thakur, Prasidh’s poor show in Centurion raises concern about fast bowling

That there was little venom in their bowling as well as the fact they were hardly extracting the extra bounce or getting sideways movement helped Elgar and South African No 3 Tony de Zorzi to settle at the crease after a tricky start and eventually launch a counterattack.

For some inexplicable reason, Rohit decided to start with Thakur and Krishna after the lunch interval on the second day. The two would end up plundering 42 runs in eight overs before the skipper decided he had enough and decided to bring Bumrah and Siraj back. In the context of an extended session where the Proteas plundered 145 runs for the loss of two wickets, it was a massive, potentially game-changing phase.

It wasn’t that long ago that the trio of Bumrah, Siraj and Mohammed Shami were terrorising the Englishmen in their own backyard to help the Indians surge to a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Before that, Bumrah and Shami had joined forces with Ishant Sharma to mastermind India’s series victory in Australia in 2018-19. And two years later, Thakur would go on to star in India’s second consecutive Test series victory Down Under by contributing both with bat as well as with ball.

India had been going through a golden age of sorts in the department of fast bowling in recent years. Centurion 2023, however, will have the team, especially the bowlers, looking at themselves in the mirror.

Read | ‘India’s most abject Test performance’, Netizens react to Centurion debacle

Expect the team to ring in a change or two heading into the second Test, which takes place at Cape Town’s picturesque Newlands starting Wednesday. Prasidh will need to work on his red-ball game for a while before he gets another call up and the team leadership might just bring Mukesh Kumar as the third frontline pacer. Ravindra Jadeja might get preferred over Ashwin, who had little impact with bat or ball in the end though he was unlucky to have a couple of catches dropped off his bowling.

Rohit will have an even bigger task at hand in getting the team to regroup after such a demoralising defeat, and get the them to focus on the task ahead. The prospect of a series win might be over now but India can still sign off from the tour on a high by drawing a Test series for only the second time ever.

India vs South Africa: Rohit Sharma and Co get a reality check with innings thrashing in CenturionRead More