South Africa 286 (De Villiers 65, Du Plessis 62, Bhuvneshwar 4-87) and 130 (Shami 3-28, Bumrah 3-39) beat India 209 and 135 (Philander 6-42) by 72 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details (Viewers in the Indian subcontinent can watch highlights of the Test here)
For a half hour or so, the South African pace attack looked… unremarkable. Without Dale Steyn – out of the series with a heel injury – the other three had a difficult task summoning their usual menace. Then came an inswinger. It only decided to be one after travelling three-fourth the distance down the pitch. It fooled Virat Kohli. And it broke India.
Newlands was once again a reminder that Test-match conditions tilted in favour of the bowlers foster compelling cricket. In fact, footage of the fast bowling from both teams can probably replace adrenaline in hospitals. The fourth day alone featured 18 wickets and six of them went to Vernon Philander as his career-best sealed victory for his team, on his home ground, by 72 runs.
In the end, the result highlighted the difference between the two sides and was borne from the fact that South Africa’s bowlers allowed 48 boundaries in the entire Test and India’s offered 41 in the first innings alone.
Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah did try their best to make amends. Like a heavy metal song that begins in the guise of a gentle melody, they simply blew batsmen away in the morning.
Faf du Plessis’ wicket was a perfect example. He did not do much wrong in deciding to press forward to a delivery that under normal circumstances would have come up about waist-high. But in Cape Town, on a surface that spent an entire day under the covers, something crazy happened. The ball banged into the deck, it trampolined up to take the top glove even as the batsman recoiled from the line of fire, and settled in the wicketkeeper’s waiting gloves.
As elated as India would have been at that point, they would have known their batsmen would have to tackle those kinds of deliveries at a much higher frequency.
More to follow
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
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Source: ESPN Crickinfo