SA's bowling is top draw but their batting has weakened somewhat with Amla not looking the same class of player he once was. The return of de Villiers will help and Markram looks like a talent but an out of sorts de Kock at 6 and Philander (although handy with the bat) at 7 makes them a bit vulnerable if the top order fail. However their bowling is so good that they'll always be competitive home and away.

South Africa around 5 years ago were a quality but they were really poor in England both in the Champions Trophy and in the tour, especially the Tests.

Is this a fightback from India? Maybe they should've attacked earlier?

Their best chance is to go into one day mode really especially with Rohit at the crease. Way too many to chase down but it's easier when you put the fielding team under pressure. If these 2 put on another 50 runs then SA will just start to panic a bit as it would bring the required runs down under 100.

I do think India missed a trick by playing so slow last night, I know that it's hard against the new ball, but the less the target becomes, the more the fielding side panics, I agree and we all know South Africa can panic like no other team although that's more with the bat than the ball.

Well that's that. 2 quick wickets and this is done with just Bumrah and Ishant left. Well done to Ngidi for getting a 5 for on debut.

Gutless pathetic performance by India. They should be ashamed of this performance.

Bloody idiots! Got no shame and these punks will act as if no big deal. Shastri and donkeys will say we fought hard and it is a learning curve etc.. blah blah blah! Just want to kick their backside so hard that they will remember all their lives.

Pujara should be locked up for few days in jail for his run outs. I would also put butter behind Parthiv’ass instead of his gloves which he does already. It wil be easier to put rods behind his u know. Never this Gaandoo should play tests for India!

Really disappointed with Kholi too! Got no words to express my pain and frustration...........

Bloody idiots! Got no shame and these punks will act as if no big deal. Shastri and donkeys will say we fought hard and it is a learning curve etc.. blah blah blah! Just want to kick their backside so hard that they will remember all their lives.
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So much for a tight test series. Teams are just not performing away from home and this is what is killing test cricket.

yup away teams are really struggling atm, how to improve though? better quality warm up games? more players playing outside of their own country for domestic cricket?

It was suggested teams play the odi's before the tests.. I think that's a good idea..Give opposition time to get their feet under the table. England may have preformed a bit better in the ashes then..
Brisbane is always the first test and Australia have a unbelievable winning streak there against all comers.

I would have said take the toss out of the equation and let the away team decide but in the Ashes Root did win a few and England still lost.

In this series SA won both tosses. Would India have fared better if they batted first?

India win the toss a lot at home and win.. I don't think the toss plays a massive role..The aussies of the 90s and early 2000s. and the west-indies of the 80s. Wouldn't have mattered what happened at the toss.. the best teams find ways to win. The standard of test cricket is very poor at the moment.

Doubt toss would have made a difference. In the first match, Kohli said he would have bowled anyway (not sure how true that is).

In the second game, even if India had batted first, they'd be batting again on a 3rd/4th day pitch which was still variable.

The tactics used in this match and the team selection absolutely baffle me. Why did Kohli not bring on Shami/Bumrah before the second new ball yesterday? He didn't even take the new ball when it was available so it's not like he was waiting for that.

Regarding team..well, that's been beaten to death already. Don't know how many times Rohit Sharma needs to fail outside India to finally not get a look in. Rahane..well everyone knows he should be in the team. I would still stick with Rahul opening. He had a poor game but still better than Dhawan away from home.

Parthiv Patel..should just retire. Can't keep, can't bat. Clearly overweight.

How Ishant Sharma got into the side before Yadav is beyond me.

Don't know what went through Pujara's head in this game..

On a side note, imagine the state of this thread if Pakistan also weren't losing in New Zealand right now

we can't wum you that much as we are also getting a major pasting by NZ. Think we should save the wumming for the U19 world cup

Not sure what there is to wum about kash.... Since South Africa returned to Test cricket, Pakistan have won 11 out of 49, but they've also lost 33 out of 49 in Eng, Aus and SA. India have won 7 out of 60 and lost 33.

Pakistan have generally had the best fast bowling line up out of the 3 sub-continental Test teams. But with our current toothless attack our record will only get worse and align to that of India and Lanka. Can’t see Pakistan or India beating England this summer either

Another disastrous capituation by the Indians. Another chance to make history gone begging.

Fair play to Saffas but Indians are their own worst enemies.

Bowlers have done a great job especially Ishant Sharma. 5 wickets for 86 in the match.

Indians are spoilt for choice in term of pace bowling department. Shami, B Kumar, I Sharma, Bumrah, Yadav.

Pandya has all the making of the modern day Kapil Dev with bowling and explosive counter attacking batting. Just needs to work on his temeparement.

As I said, 200 was more than enough by South Africa. We were just comprehensively outplayed by a side who again in home conditions are simply far superior. I have no doubt we would thrash them even more comprehensively if we were playing at home. Sadly that has become the theme throughout Test cricket - away sides simply do not get a look in anymore.

However faack me how braindead our some of our players. Throwing away wickets, poor slip catching and not even grounding their bats. Shocking all round - we really do not help ourselves. Kohli may have played a world class innings but it will soon be forgotten because of his poor team selection and very questionable tactics. Thats another away tour lost and I can’t see anything else other than similar in England at this rate.

This will be a pretty long year for Kohli and the team. The reality is we have a muffled selection policy. Throughout the home season we don’t play Pandya and Bumrah and the first game away from home both are automatic choices. Both might have performed in patches but I’m not sure they have warranted a place in the team ahead of players who have done well in home season. Same goes with Rohit Sharma. His 47 in second innings might guarantee his position in playing 11 for another 5 matches but realistically he doesn’t look like a player that will succeed in these conditions. His technique is probably the worst among the current crop of players.

Take this as an example Bhuvneshwar Kumar got dropped from this match. He has the highest wickets in the first test. Kohli could have dropped anyone but Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Bumrah didn’t have a particularly good test to have got a 2nd chance. Also why we need to drop the idea of playing pandya. I would rather have a specialist batsman ahead of him. In this match Pandya’s contribution with the bat and ball was 0.

Let’s just pretend this one series never happened

We were always going to get hammered in NZ. They are a very strong team at home. Pakistan lower order saved our a55 otherwise would have been even worse.

Reckon the NZ Eng odi series next month will be a cracker with some high scores.

Spot on A14 typical top order shambles. Relying on Fakhar to get off to a good start.

Babar is going the same way as his Kackmal cousins.

Think we have bowled okish on flat tracks but we did miss Hafeez bowling and Imad.

Back to the drawing board as the CT is now looking like a fluke.

Only competed in 2 of these 5 ODI games, very disappointe to have lost 5-0 also find all these chopping and changing a bit silly. Fakhar is great and needs to stay in the team. I still have a lot of faith in Babar, need to try and keep most of the same team we had that won the ICC Champions Trophy in my opinion.