Honours shared as India and South Africa play out a draw

The first test match between India and South Africa at the Wanderers in Johannesburg ended in a pulsating draw. South Africa batted out the full quota of 90 overs in a day to deprive India of what would have been a famous win outside the sub-continent. Others might say that the Indians should consider themselves extremely lucky not to lose a match in which they have dominated right from the very beginning. Keeping aside these entire ifs and buts one thing should be said that it was an exhilarating test match that went down to the wire.

Now coming back to the game, it was an outstanding batting display put up by first by Faf Du Plessis and then by AB De Villiers to take SA to safety. Du Plessis and De Villiers put up a brilliant partnership of 205 runs as they batted together for almost 5 hours. Du Plessis who came on to bat after the fall of Hashim Amla’s wicket towards the end of the fourth day played with great patience to see through SA. On his way to this match-saving innings he completed his third century. Such was his dominance over the Indian bowlers that they never looked like getting him into any sort of trouble. He was playing beautifully until he decided to take a quick single with the ball going straight to Ajinkya Rahane who was fielding at mid-off. Rahane like the previous day hit the stumps directly and brought an end to a great innings by Du Plessis (134). As long as Du Plessis was there SA looked like pulling off a memorable victory by chasing 458. It would have been a record had SA reached the finishing line. However the fall of Du Plessis did not make it possible as Vernon Philander along with Dale Steyn decided to play out the rest of the overs.

AB De Villiers (103) also played his part in that crucial match-saving partnership with Du Plessis as he completed his 18^th test match century. He never looked like getting out before dragging one back to his stumps while looking to steer the ball down to the third-man area for a single. Until then he never looked like getting out to the Indians bowlers. It was a great innings under immense pressure. When he came on to bat after the fall Jacques Kallis, it needed some determined batting for SA to save the test match. And he not only batted with determination but showed controlled aggression as he never left the loose balls. As a result he took SA o a position from where SA could have won the test match with more than few overs to spare.

Nothing much could be said about the Indian bowling on the final day. The Indian bowlers who otherwise had a great test match could not create too much of problems when the Protean duo were at the crease. He could consider them unlucky at times as edges off the bat had flown away over the slip cordon for more than one occasion. But once Ishant Sharma broke the mammoth partnership, they began to look all the more dangerous once again.

Taking into consideration all that has happened in the course of the last five days it has been a fascinating match that could have gone the either way. There were great performances from the players of both the sides. Still it should be said that the decision to award Virat Kohli the man-of-the-match award despite the match-saving performances from the South African has just been perfect on behalf of the experts. It was Virat’s first test match on the South African soil and the maturity that he has shown with the bat made him an automatic choice for the trophy.

The two teams will now fly off to Durban for the next test scheduled to begin on the Boxing Day. Another exciting encounter is on the cards as the two teams will be looking forward to seal the series and stamp their authority over one another.

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About Argha Ghosh

An ardent follower of sports and die-hard Manchester United fan, Argha's ultimate dream is to watch a Manchester derby from the Stretford End at the Old Trafford.