SA vs IND 2018, 2nd Test: It Took a Lot of Hard Work Over the Last Five Days - Faf du Plessis

It was a dominating performance by the Proteas on the final Day of the 2^nd Test against India at the SuperSport Park in Centurion, as they gained an unassailable 2-0 lead after winning the match by 151 runs.

The visitors kept on losing wickets at regular intervals on the final day morning, and there was no way back for them. Cheteshwar Pujara for the 2^nd time in the match ran himself out and especially looking at the match conditions, Pujara would have been the most important batsmen if India hoped of winning the match ahead of the day’s play.

Rohit Sharma played a fluent knock of 47 and attacked the Proteas bowlers with disdain. After losing seven wickets for 87 runs, there was a good partnership between Rohit and Mohammed Shami, but a brilliant catch from AB de Villiers ended Rohit’s innings and with that the hopes of the visitors. Lungi Ngidi on his debut was simply sensational bagging 6/39 to bag the Man of the Match Award in only his first Test.

Batting first South Africa posted 335 in their 1^st innings courtesy a brilliant knock of 94 by Aiden Markram and a fluent knock of 82 by Hashim Amla. Ravichandran Ashwin was the pick of the Indian bowlers bagging four wickets while Ishant Sharma also chipped in with three wickets.

Courtesy a sensational knock of 153 by Virat Kohli, India replied strongly but eventually fell 28 runs short of the South African 1^st innings total. Morne Morkel was the pick of the Proteas bowlers bagging four wickets for 60 runs.

The Proteas managed to score 258 in their 2^nd innings riding on a brilliant 80 by AB de Villiers and a good half-century by Faf du Plessis. Mohammed Shami was the wrecker-in-chief for India bagging four wickets while Jasprit Bumrah also chipped in three wickets.

Here is what Faf du Plessis said at the post-match presentation

“It took a lot of hard work over the last five days. We were on top pretty much most of the times. One of the harder Tests, given batting and bowling, was tough. We were amazing in the field. After Day 1, we were very disappointed. In that last 45 minutes of Day 1, we gave India a sniff and the chat after that was that we are gonna need a bit of character over the next four days. We were short in the first innings. We needed to get 400, especially from the position we were in, but for me, the vital time was the second innings.”

“We kept pushing the scoring, and we knew that anything over 250 would be challenging. So the guys were grinding hard to get over 250. Special performance by Ngidi. He’s a great guy, and we welcome him into the team. Amazing future that lad has. I look at the person’s personality the first thing, and he’s a wonderful human being. I see him carrying this national attack for a few years. Morne’s catch was better than AB’s (chuckles). Morne is going to tell us a lot about that catch over the next few days. You can tell from his celebrations. Long strides like that across the field is a beautiful sight.”

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