At the Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town, India defeated South Africa by seven wickets in a contest that was controlled by pacers. Indian pacers smashed South Africa's dangerous batting order, riding on the back of Mohammed Siraj's ferocious pace, to end the Test match in just five sessions. With just 642 balls delivered, this Test match is the shortest in cricket history. The record of 656 balls set in 1932 by Australia in their victory over South Africa is broken in the second Test match between India and South Africa.
India finished their first innings on Day 1, as did South Africa, and the Proteas even lost three wickets in their second innings. Only twice in Test cricket history have there been as many wickets lost on the opening day of a five-day match as there were that day. Similar events occurred when both teams lost 25 wickets overall on Day 1 of an Australia vs. England match played at Melbourne Ground in 1902. If you believe that is the last of the unwanted records, we have more. It wasn't the first time that India had collapsed so suddenly in the first innings, losing six wickets in 11 balls and scoring no runs. India became a member of the "elite" group of records that were not sought, since there have been seven other instances of such disasters.
Rohit Sharma, the captain of Team India, acknowledged his satisfaction at India's comeback from the Centurion loss. "Obviously it's a great feat, but having said that we had to learn from whatever mistakes we made (in the first test)," the captain of India stated.
Even though India was ahead, they lost control as Siraj took six wickets to help them destroy Proteas for a meager 55. In a period of 11 balls, they fell from 153/4 to 153 all out. And Bumrah took one wicket, while Mukesh Kumar came back and took two quick wickets. The most number of wickets lost on the opening day of a Test match is 23, which was taken today. On the first day of a Test match in South Africa, it also holds the record for most wickets fallen.
