South Africa have opened their account in the ICC World Test Championship 2021-23 after they beat India by seven wickets at the Wanderers. Chasing 240 runs, the Proteas skipper Dean Elgar steered the run chase with an unbeaten 96 to level the three-match series.
Although rain played a spoilsport on day 4 and wasted two sessions, the hosts chased it down quite convincingly. Elgar stood strong and found ample support from Aiden Markram (31), Keegan Petersen (28) and Rassie van der Dussen (40). Seeing the match through at the other end was Temba Bavuma.
With this victory, South Africa have jumped to the fifth spot with 12 points under their belts. Australia lead the charts with a 100 percent win record while India are placed fourth in the points table.
Here is the full ICC World Test Championship points table:
We were 60-70 runs short in the first innings – KL Rahul
Stand-in captain KL Rahul lamented that they were 60-70 runs short in the first innings after opting to bat first.
“If I have to be really harsh, after winning the toss we could have put 60-70 runs more,” KL Rahul said at the end of the game.
He also credited the South African batters showing determination to chase down the total.
“Every Test match we play we feel we should win and want to win. That’s the kind of team we are, we compete really hard and we leave everything on the field. So yes a bit disappointing but credit to the way South Africa played. They really batted well and bowled well. We were really looking forward to getting go nth field. We all felt we could do something special, 122 wasn’t going to be that easy to get, the pitch was up and down, but like I said, the South African batsmen were really determined and got the job done,” KL Rahul concluded.
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