Jubilant South Africa put their name up in lights
This is a Test team still in development, and that makes their statement victory at SuperSport Park all the more impressive
Firdose Moonda28-Dec-2023Kagiso Rabada was airborne, horizontal against the sight screen and directly in front of the open-air media box when he got both hands to the shot that Virat Kohli played over Marco Jansen’s head.Time stopped. Breaths were held.Celebrations were suspended mid-air.As Rabada came down on the turf, ball in hand, Dean Elgar at long-off raised both arms and the cork on the sizable SuperSport Park crowd popped. It fizzed and bubbled and sprayed out as Elgar reached Rabada, who was back on his feet, and they jointly hug-jumped themselves into the Highveld air. South Africa had won, and won big.The last time they beat India by an innings was more than 13 years ago, at this very ground. Since then, South Africa have lost more than they’ve won against India – nine defeats, five wins and three draws before this match – and three of those losses came at home. With every series, India got closer to breaching what they called the final frontier, closest perhaps just two years ago when they took the first Test in the series and South Africa had to put up almighty fights in the next two to keep them at bay.Related
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With this contest limited to only two matches, and against an inexperienced South Africa without Anrich Nortje and Lungi Ngidi, India sensed a real opportunity. South Africa recognised a genuine threat.The pre-series talk was dominated by the desperation to keep their home record intact, because it meant something. In all the change that has occurred in South African cricket over the last decade in particular, what it mostly meant was that South Africa are still a formidable side, and coming here is still entering a fortress. “It’s massive for us,” Shukri Conrad, South Africa’s Test coach said after the victory. “We know what a quality side India are and also what a quality side we are, especially at home.”Conrad’s talking up of his own side is not is not an accident, but a deliberate and direct response to the hype he has seen elsewhere, about other teams and other players and though he didn’t say it, perhaps about what comes when you play India. They are an outfit which is as much about sporting excellence as it is celebrity, they find fans everywhere they travel to and with the richest and highest profile T20 league in the world and the most powerful board, they boss the game but they did not boss this one. And for that, Conrad wants people to take notice.”Sometimes we are too humble as a group,” he said. “We are so easy to talk up other players and we don’t give our own players the credit.”The highest praise has to go to the pair whose celebration of the final wicket will become the image of this match: Elgar and Rabada. Between them, they made the most telling contributions to the match. Elgar’s 185 allowed South Africa to not just survive a hostile Indian attack but to thrive against them, and ultimately bat just once. It was also his most fluent innings and Conrad recognised the enormity of his effort as something that should be talked about in the same sentence as some of the greats.Dean Elgar gives Kagiso Rabada a bear hug after South Africa’s innings win•AFP/Getty Images”I haven’t seen Dean play any better,” Conrad said. “If you look at Dean’s record, he is second to Graeme (Smith) in terms of opening batters (in South Africa) and that’s something to be really proud of. That’s something we want to start highlighting: obviously the team comes first but we also want to talk about individual performances that put us up in lights.”Rabada’s match figures of 7 for 91 was another and came as he led the attack, not just in skill but also maturity. In a first innings where the rest of the pack struggled with their lines and barely threatened the stumps, Rabada took his 14th Test five-for and then he set the tone by removing Rohit Sharma for the seventh time in 11 innings to start India’s second-innings spiral. “KG was brilliant with the ball,” Conrad said. “We weren’t particularly good with the ball in the first innings, KG aside.”But there were also words of praise for the younger players. Nandre Burger, on debut, took 7 for 83 and bowled with good pace and aggression. David Bedingham, also a first-timer, scored 56 and shared in a 131-run partnership with Elgar that took South Africa to the brink of the lead. Bedingham is a player Conrad has picked with a view to the long-term and will play him in New Zealand, where South Africa will travel with a makeshift side, and perhaps well beyond and he appears to adore him. “With David , you know we drool over a lot of players internationally, maybe we should start drooling over our own players,” Conrad said.And there was also some redemption for Jansen, who brought up a Test best of 84 and then took 3 for 36, and bowled better than he has since he lost his mojo at the latter end of the World Cup. “With Marco we know his ability and we’ve seen him do things before. It’s with the ball that he has been a bit off the mark,” Conrad said. Now, Jansen might be finding his feet again and could even become what Conrad called the “genuine allrounder,” South Africa have long been searching for.Put all those things together and consider that South Africa are still a Test team in development and it makes their performance at SuperSport Park all the more impressive. And South Africa seems to know it. As twilight hit and the storm clouds burst, the team song could be heard from the changeroom, sung with a gusto usually reserved for series wins. But this series cannot be lost, and for this South African team, that is reason enough to exhale deeply, and celebrate.