IND vs SA 2025-26, 1st Test, Highlights: India’s spin gamble backfires again as South Africa clinch a famous win to go 1-0 up.
Brief Scores: SA 159 (Aiden Markram 31, Jasprit Bumrah 5/27, Kuldeep Yadav 2/36) & 153 (Temba Bavuma 55*, Ravindra Jadeja 4/50) beat Ind 189 (KL Rahul 39, Simon Harmer 4/30, Marco Jansen 3/35) & 93 (Washington Sundar 31, Simon Harmer 4/21) by 30 runs and go 1-0 up.
Player of the Match: Simon Harmer
Team India‘s struggle against South Africa’s spinners gave them a tiny lead of 30 runs in the first innings of the opening Test at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. But Ravindra Jadeja’s 4/29 restricted the Proteas to 93/7 by the end of the second day’s play. However, on a surface where the ball had bounced variably, chasing anything over 150 would be a tough challenge in the fourth innings.
There was an intersection of cracks and where the ball pitched on that point it exploded, leading to the variable bounce. The spinners would get plenty of assistance, while for the pacers, the key would be to continue bowling at the stumps. For the batters, they need to be aggressive in their shot selection.
Talking point: India’s inability to play spin
Questions would be raised on India’s ability to counter spin. For two out of three successive home Test series, their batters lacked skill and ability against the spinners.
Out of the 18 available wickets, they lost 12 to spin in this contest. Even on the same surface, Temba Bavuma showed the right way of adjusting to the various lengths of the spinners. This would continue to be a headache for the management in the future.
Read More: Irrespective of outcomes, is India’s team combination muddled in Tests?
Temba Bavuma’s 55* set India 124-run target; hosts crumble to 10/2 at lunch
Following the same trend of the morning sessions in the previous two days, both overnight Protea batters, Corbin Bosch and Temba Bavuma, looked comfortable in the middle. They posted a fine 44-run eighth-wicket stand to take their lead over the 100-run mark. Bavuma registered his 26th Test fifty, with the entire Eden Gardens applauding his gritty knock.
Stand-in captain, Rishabh Pant, summoned Jasprit Bumrah into the attack. The Ahmedabad-born immediately broke the stand with Bosch’s wicket. A good length delivery nipped back to crash past the batter’s lazy waft and broke the stumps.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Siraj, on his second over of the innings, removed both Simon Harmer and Keshav Maharaj. The Proteas got bundled out for 153, setting a stiff target of 124 for India in the fourth innings.
India experienced a nightmare start in the fourth innings. Marco Jansen’s nip-backer caught the outside edge of Yashasvi Jaiswal for a four-ball duck. Subsequently, KL Rahul couldn’t handle the rising delivery from Jansen to reach 10/2 at lunch. Shubman Gill, who was hospitalised with a neck spasm, was ruled out of the contest.
Read More: IND vs SA 2025-26, 1st Test, Day 2: South Africa in disarray at 93-7, courtesy Jadeja’s 4-29
Simon Harmer’s 4/21 completes South Africa’s 30-run win to go 1-0 up
Dhurv Jurel showed some application at the start of the second session. The in-form batter closed the bat face to work Bosch’s length delivery towards square leg for a boundary besides rotating the strike. But he made a massive mistake by smashing the rank long hop from Harmer into the hands of the fielder.
Pant didn’t look settled at all for his two runs and gave a return catch to Harmer. The latter was excellent in changing the pace of the deliveries to extract full assistance off the surface. Ravindra Jadeja again put his pad before the bat to get trapped leg before the stumps.
Washington Sundar’s wicket was the turning point of the clash as he looked the most solid batter in the middle. Axar Patel played a few big shots for his 26 runs in 17 balls, but that didn’t make any difference. India got bundled out for 93, losing the contest by 30 runs.
What’s to come
India will be under pressure after going 1-0 down before the second game of the series. The encounter will take place on November 22 at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati.
Read More: IND vs SA 2025-26, 1st Test, Day 1: Bumrah fifer blows away SA for 159; India 37-1 at stumps
Statistical Highlights from IND vs SA, 1st Test, Day 3
- Temba Bavuma and Corbin Bosch record South Africa’s second-highest eighth-wicket Test partnership (44) at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
- Temba Bavuma’s 55* is the second-highest individual Test score for a South Africa captain at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Graeme Smith leads the chart with his 71 in 2004.
- Jasprit Bumrah records India’s third-best Test bowling match figure (6/51) against South Africa at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Harbhajan Singh holds the top two places with 9/141 and 8/123.
- Temba Bavuma registered the first half-century of this Test in the third innings of the game.
- Yashasvi Jaiswal has now been dismissed 8 times against left-arm pace bowling in Tests. He has an average of 21.8 against this type of bowling in the longest format.
- Simon Harmer records the third joint-most Test wickets (18) with Makhaya Ntini for South Africa in India. Dale Steyn (26) and Morne Morkel (21) lead the chart.
- Simon Harmer’s 8/51 in the second-best bowling figures for South Africa in Tests in India. Dale Steyn’s 10/108 is the top of the table.
Top Twitter Reactions from IND vs SA, Kolkata Test, Day 3
Crazy good win that! Well done Proteas👏👏👏I’m speechless
— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) November 16, 2025
Huge result for SA.
— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) November 16, 2025
Great game and well played to the proteas.
The revival of South African cricket in the last 2-3 years is so good for the world game. There was a fear 6 years ago that they were plummeting down and a lot of credit must now go to this combo of Shukri Conrad and, especially, Temba Bavuma who has been such an inspired choice…
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) November 16, 2025
India find Test match hell, failing to score 124 in run chase. SA, exceeding India in skills in all departments and riding on unrelenting self-belief, pull off stunning win to go 1-0 up in series
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) November 16, 2025
Skills to play spin on turning tracks around the world have definitely gone down, but this kind of batting from India shows how much our own ability has dropped too. Soft hands, wrist work,all of it has declined drastically.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) November 16, 2025
Looks like we haven’t learned our lesson from NZ series loss. The gap between our spinners and opposition spinners reduces on pitches like this. We need to go back to classic Indian pitches, like the ones in 2016-17 season when Virat was captain and Eng and NZ toured. #INDvSA
— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) November 16, 2025
South Africa showed if you bowl well two spinners are enough to win a test match in india.
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) November 16, 2025
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