Virat Kohli celebrates India’s win.
India beat South Africa by 113 runs to win their first-ever Test match in Centurion.
- Last Updated:December 30, 2021, 17:10 IST
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India captain Virat Kohli hailed his side for winning Centurion with a day to spare. Rainfall made sure no play was possible on day 2 effectively making this game a four day affair. India beat South Africa by 113 runs to take 1-0 lead in three-match series. India has never won in Centurion before. “Got off to the perfect start. Have to understand one day was washed out – shows how well we played. It’s always a difficult place to play against SA (Centurion). The discipline that the batters showed. Winning the toss, batting first overseas is a tough challenge.”
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Besides, KL Rahul, who scored a century, India were lead by its pacers—Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah. While the former went onto take a fifer, latter got India crucial breakthroughs in the second innings. Kohli added India were in ‘pole position’ after scoring more than 300 in the first innings. “Credit to Mayank and KL the way they set it up. We knew we were in pole position with anything over 300-320. Knew the bowlers will do the job. Spoke about it in the change room – the fact he didn’t bowl much in the first innings, it allowed SA to get around 40 more runs (Bumrah). Just the way these guys bowl together has been a hallmark of our team getting a result in difficult situations”
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When asked about Shami, the skipper replied that the ‘world class’ bowler was at his best four years ago in Johannesburg, and he is looking forward to playing there. “For me he’s in the best three seamers in the world at the moment. His strong wrist, his seam position and his ability to hit a length consistently. Got so much confidence out of Johannesburg last time. It’s a ground we love playing at,” he signed off.
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