India suffered a humiliating defeat by an innings and 32 runs to South Africa as their chances of conquering the Final Frontier remained a distant dream once again.
South African pacers Nandre Burger (4/33), Kagiso Rabada (2/32) and Marco Jansen (3/36) rained fire as India lost wickets at regular intervals and ultimately fell to an infamous defeat.
Virat Kohli was the only bright spot of an otherwise ordinary Indian batting lineup, scoring 76 in 82 balls before falling to Jansen as Rabada took a brilliant running catch. He was also the last Indian wicket to fall as the visitors went down 1-0 in the 2-match Test series.
At Tea, India were already 3 down for 63 in their second innings after dismissing South Africa for 408 on day 3 of the opening Test on Thursday.
India, who had scored 245 in their first innings, lost Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Riding on Dean Elgar’s superbly-crafted 185 and Marco Jansen’s career-best 84, the hosts had posted a healthy first-innings score of 408.
Elgar, whose previous highest Test score is 199, was inching towards his maiden double hundred before a faint tickle to a leg-side bouncer from Shardul Thakur brought an end to his innings.
But that didn’t deter the lanky Jansen, not exactly known for his batting prowess, from negotiating a deflated Indian attack that looked out of sorts and bereft of ideas.
The Elgar-Jansen pair added 111 runs for the sixth wicket.
At the break, Kohli and Shreyas Iyer were at the crease.
After Tea, the procession of India wickets continued with Iyer (6), KL Rahul (4), Ravichandran Ashwin (0) and Shardul Thakur (2) all going back to the pavilion in quick time.
Jasprit Bumrah was run out for 0 while Mohammed Siraj was gone for 4 as 8 Indian batters failed to reach double figures.
India will next travel to Cape Town for the second and final Test of the series which will start on January 3.
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