A South African team going through one of its toughest transition phase embarrassed a star-studded Indian team with a clinical seven-wicket victory in the third Test to clinch a memorable 2-1 series triumph at Cape Town on Friday.
The target of 212 wasn't a tough ask and starting the day at 101 for two, Keegan Petersen (82, 113 balls) along with Rassie van Der Dussen (41 not out) added 54 runs for the third wicket to seal the match before Temba Bavuma (32 not out) helped in putting the final touches.
With this series defeat, India's record of never having won a Test series in the Rainbow Nation for three decades, remained intact.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is the only India captain to have managed to draw a series back in 2010.
The Virat Kohli-led side was one of the strongest Indian teams on paper against one of the weakest South African teams on paper. However, the operative word here was "on paper" as Dean Elgar's unheralded bunch showed a lot of character in punching above their weight and also getting heavily rewarded for their relentless efforts.
Meanwhile, Twitter users were extremely disappointed with India's series loss as many had termed this to be the team's best chance of winning in South Africa.
"This result is as disappointing for Indian cricket as the 4-1 defeat in England in 2018. Outbatted by a vastly less experienced team but in all fairness Rabada, Ngidi, Jansen and Olivier outbowled India too," tweeted Harsha Bhogle.
"Final frontier remains unconquered. 2018 was a contest between two evenly matched sides and you could take a lot of heart from the performances even in a series defeat. This tour though…winning the first test…superior side…and then losing 1-2. This will hurt. Should hurt," wrote Aakash Chopra.
Check out the Twitter reactions below:
(With PTI inputs)
