India’s vice-captain Rishabh Pant reflected on India’s 30-run loss to South Africa in the first home Test at Eden Gardens. Leading the team in the absence of the injured Shubman Gill on day three, Pant admitted that the pitch was tricky, but he also highlighted that India had enough chances to win and should have handled the pressure better.
“After a game like this, you can’t dwell on it too much,” Pant said during the post-match presentation ceremony. “We should have been able to chase it. The pressure kept building. We didn’t capitalise enough.”
Pant highlighted how the 44-run partnership between Temba Bavuma (55) and Corbin Bosch (25) changed the course of the game. “Temba and Bosch had a good stand in the morning. That partnership between them hurt us. There was help from the wicket. A score of 120 can be tricky on these surfaces. But having said that, we should be able to handle the pressure and capitalise. We haven’t focused on improvements yet, but we will come back strong for sure,” he added.
At stumps on day two, South Africa found themselves in trouble, having added just 91 runs for the loss of seven wickets. On the following day, the eighth-wicket partnership between Bavuma and Bosch helped them reach a total of 153 runs. Bavuma scored a valiant half-century in tricky conditions. For India, Ravindra Jadeja was the pick of the bowlers with his four-for, while Kuldeep Yadav and Mohammed Siraj claimed two wickets each. Jasprit Bumrah and Axar Patel took one wicket apiece.
India failed to chase down the target of 124, losing the game by 30 runs. For South Africa, Simon Harmer, who was awarded Player of the Match, followed his first-innings four-wicket haul with another four-for. Keshav Maharaj and Marco Jansen took two wickets each.
The second Test will be played at Barsapara Stadium, Guwahati, from November 22.
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