India beat Proteas in shortest (and weirdest) Test ever

Cape Town — India chased down a modest victory target of 79 to claim a seven-wicket win over hosts SA in the second Test at Newlands on Thursday and share the two-match series 1-1 after an extraordinary game finished inside five sessions.

India ended their second innings on 80/3 as they launched an assault to try to negate a difficult wicket that was still helping the bowlers. Rohit Sharma was not out on 16 and Shreyas Iyer on 4, with Yashasvi Jaiswal (28), Shubman Gill (10) and Virat Kohli (12) the wickets to fall.

There will be plenty of scrutiny of the Newlands pitch with the match completed in 642 balls, the shortest ever Test in which there has been a winner, beating Australia’s 656-ball victory over SA in 1932.

“Obviously it’s a great feat, but having said that we had to learn from whatever mistakes we made [in the first Test],” India captain Rohit Sharma said.

“The bowlers still have to put the ball in the right areas and the boys got rewarded for it. When you come to this part of the world, it’s always difficult but we take pride in our performance outside India.”

SA, who won the toss and elected to bat, will look back on a desperately poor first innings in which they were bowled out for 55 on a record-breaking opening day

They gave themselves a fighting chance by dismissing India for 153 when the visitors lost six wickets for the addition of no runs, the first time that has happened in 147 years of Tests.

But India seamer Jasprit Bumrah took 6/61 as the tourists bowled SA out in their second innings for 176 on the stroke of lunch on the second day to set up the win.

Bumrah bowled a superb probing line but also profited from poor shot selection from the home batters, who seemed in a hurry to score runs on the tricky wicket.

SA opener Aiden Markram scored a quick-fire 106 as he defied the conditions but lost partners at regular intervals, which forced him to try his hand. Markram raced to his century in 99 balls but played one big shot too many as he skied a Mohammed Siraj delivery to Rohit Sharma at mid-off to end an innings of 17 fours and two sixes.

“A tough one for us, we were positive coming into the game, but the first innings with the bat ... India bowled well and used the conditions to a tee,” retiring SA captain Dean Elgar said.

“It [the wicket] was a bit of a ripper, to the naked eye it looked a nice one, but it played different to what everyone thought it would play. “I still don’t regret my decision to bat first but they outskilled us in the first session.”

SA won the first Test by an innings and 32 runs.

Reuters