When Tiger Woods achieved that legendary chip-in on the 16th hole in the final round of the 2005 Masters, the commentator Verne Lundquist uttered a memorable phrase, “Have you ever witnessed anything like that in your life?!”

That same question from Lundquist could be asked about the first day of the thrilling cricket contest in the second Test between India and South Africa at Newlands on Wednesday. With the sun shining and the Table Mountain behind them, fans saw things on the cricket ground that they had never seen before.

 

India had bundled out South Africa for just 55, as Mohammed Siraj bowled nine overs on the trot and blew the Proteas batters away with a fiery, career-best spell of 6-15. The score of 55 from South Africa is also the lowest total by any team against India in Test cricket.

India took the lead in less than ten overs and were comfortably placed at 153/4, before suffering a sensational collapse. They lost six wickets for just zero runs in 11 balls – a never-seen-before instance in Test cricket history, with three of them taken by Lungi Ngidi’s triple-wicket maiden.

Despite that collapse, India still managed to have an edge as South Africa ended day one at 62/3. The hosts’ still trail by 36 runs on a pitch which has steep bounce and seam movement, with batting becoming an arduous task for batters’ of both teams.

Dean Elgar, playing his final Test match, won the toss and elected to bat first under bright skies. But it all went downhill quickly for South Africa from there as Aiden Markram nicked a good length delivery to diving third slip off Siraj.

Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah attacked Elgar with deliveries on stumps and placing short leg as well as leg-slip. That plan worked well when Elgar chopped on to his stumps off a wide outside off-stump delivery from Siraj.

With attacking lengths on stumps and close-in catchers placed, India found more success as debutant Tristan Stubbs inside-edged to short leg off Bumrah, while Tony de Zorzi glanced to wicketkeeper KL Rahul moving to his right off Siraj, as South Africa slumped to 29/4.

Siraj then found extra bounce around off-stump to have David Bedingham nicking to the slip cordon for 12. He finally got his fifer when Marco Jansen nicked behind to Rahul for a three-ball duck. In his next over, Siraj got his sixth wicket when Kyle Verreynne gave an outside edge on the drive to second slip.

Mukesh Kumar, coming in for Shardul Thakur, joined the wicket-taker’s party by using extra bounce to have Keshav Maharaj give a simple catch to mid-wicket. After Nandre Burger nicked to third slip off Bumrah, Mukesh ended the innings by having Kagiso Rabada edge to fourth slip, leaving India jubilant and South Africa stunned. (Edited)

Brief Scores: South Africa 55 in 23.2 overs (Kyle Verreynne 15; Mohammed Siraj 6-15) and 62/3 in 17 overs (Aiden Markram 36 not out; Mukesh Kumar 2-25) trail India 153 in 34.5 overs (Virat Kohli 46, Rohit Sharma 39; Lungi Ngidi 3-30, Kagiso Rabada 3-38) by 36 runs.