The Day 1 of Cape Town turned out to be a field day for pacers. After South Africa were bundled out for a record 55, courtesy Mohammed Siraj’s six-wicket haul, the hosts wrapped up India’s first innings for 153 to keep themselves in the game. From 11 balls, no runs were scored and six wickets fell including four ducks. This is the first time six wickets fell on the same score in the history of Test cricket.
The collapse started in the 34th over. Lungi Ngidi got KL Rahul's wicket as he edged one to the wicketkeeper Kyle Verreynne. Ravindra Jadeja walked out to bat and on the second ball he faced, he was caught by Marco Jansen after Ngidi generated extra bounce from the surface again. Jasprit Bumrah managed to block out the first ball he faced. Bumrah was surprised by the bounce as well and was caught by Jansen.
After a triple-wicket maiden from Ngidi, Kagiso Rabada got the better of Virat Kohli with the second ball of the 35th over. The thick outside edge went to Aide Markram at second slip who took an excellent catch. Kohli missed his half-century. He departed for 46 off 59 balls including six fours and a six.
Then Siraj suffered a brainfade as he wanted the strike. Prasidh Krishna did not have much time and Siraj was run out by Nandre Burger. On the next ball, Krishna went for the push and edged it to slip fielder Markram as India were bowled out for 153 as a result of a collapse of epic proportions.
As many as six Indian batters registered ducks. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer returned to the pavillion without troubling the scorers. Earlier, skipper Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill shared a 65-run partnership for the second wicket. Rohit scored 39 runs from 50 balls including seven fours. Gill scored 36 runs from 55 balls including five boundaries. Both the batters were dismissed by Burger. Rabada, Ngidi, and Burger took three wickets each as they restricted the lead to 98 runs.
This is the first instance of more than 16 wickets falling on a single day of play at Newlands, Cape Town. Also, the first two innings lasted only 349 balls, the second-fewest in the history of red-ball cricket.
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