IND vs SA 2025-26, 2nd Test, Day 5: India suffer their biggest loss in history & get whitewashed 0-2

IND vs SA 2025-26, 2nd Test Highlights: India face their biggest Test defeat ever by 408 runs, suffering a 0-2 whitewash.

Brief Scores: SA 489 (Senuran Muthusamy 109, Marco Jansen 93, Kuldeep Yadav 4/115) & 260/5 dec (Tristan Stubbs 94, Ravindra Jadeja 4/62) beat Ind 201 (Yashasvi Jaiswal 58, Marco Jansen 6/48, Simon Harmer 3/64) & 140 (Ravindra Jadeja 54, Simon Harmer 6/37) by 408 runs and win series by 0-2.

Player of the Match: Marco Jansen- “Winning any game is a nice feeling and winning in India is special. It’s a team performance. We spoke about sticking to our own things. Everyone is working hard, our prep as a team and in an individual capacity. We see where we can get better and on the field we give our best.”

Player of the Series: Simon Harmer- “Nice to contribute, nice to get wickets and nice to get a fifer in India. I think in the 2nd innings we knew they would bat for their lives; they put hell of a fight. When given a chance, I’m happy to play the supporting role.”

Team India were never going to chase 549 runs in the fourth innings of the second Test against South Africa at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. But the Proteas came with an attacking field set-up with several fielders around the batters to push them into making a mistake. Even a draw would be enough for the visitors to claim the series, having already won the previous Test in Kolkata.

The fifth day’s surface still looked decent for batting. But as many subcontinent pitches bring, the Guwahati track had variable bounce, sharper turn, and growing footmarks to exploit for the spinners.

Read More: IND vs SA 2025-26, 2nd Test, Day 4: India in deep doldrums at 27-2, chasing a mammoth 549

Talking point: SA bowlers out-do India bowlers on same surface
There was a clear difference between the skills of the spinners from both sides. On the same surface, where the home spinners picked up 11 wickets across two innings, Simon Harmer alone picked up nine wickets with the ball. The latter’s change of pace was the key- something which the home spinners failed to do.

Simon Harmer’s 4/23 put India on back foot; SA need 5 more wickets for victory at lunch
On the second ball of the morning session, Sai Sudharsan flicked the low full toss from Marco Jansen into the leg-side for a boundary. Apart from the rare boundaries, the Blue Brigade hardly looked to score runs. Simon Harmer drew first blood of the session for the Proteas with the wicket of Kuldeep Yadav. The southpaw expected a turn, but the ball held its line and went through the gap between bat and pad to uproot the stumps.

Three balls later, Dhruv Jurel got an outside edge into the hands of Aiden Markram at the slip region. Rishabh Pant notched up a six and a four against the left-arm spinner, Keshav Maharaj before Harmer had the last laugh. The extra bounce took Pant’s top of the bat and lobbed it into the hands of the slips.

However, since then, Ravindra Jadeja and Sai Sudharsan showed patience with their bats. Their 32-run unbeaten stand pushed India to 90/5 as South Africa smelt victory.

Read More: IND vs SA 2025-26, 2nd Test, Day 3: Jansen’s 6-48 pushes India close to another home series loss

Simon Harmer’s 6/37 help SA record 408-run victory; win series by 0-2
Sudharsan’s defense didn’t last long as Senuran Muthusamy found his outside edge on the fifth ball of the second session. Washington Sundar and Jadeja looked decent for their 35-run stand, but nothing worked against Harmer’s quality bowling. A sharp off-spin bounced a bit more and poked at Sundar’s outside edge into the hands of the slip fielder.

Meanwhile, Jadeja notched up his 28th Test half-century but Harmer continued to make inroads. He dismissed Nitish Reddy, whose reverse-sweep took the gloves and ballooned into the hands of the wicket-keeper. Jadeja used his feet, however, ended up getting stumped against Maharaj.

There couldn’t have been a better finish for the Proteas than Jansen’s one-handed catch. The lanky pacer kept running backwards and plucked a catch in the shadow to earn the massive 408-run win. Thus, South Africa pocketed their second Test series victory in India.

What’s next
With the end of the two-match Test series, both these sides will shift their focus to the upcoming three-match ODI series. The opening clash will take place on November 30 at the JSCA International Stadium Complex in Ranchi.

Read More: IND vs SA 2025-26, 2nd Test, Day 2: Muthusamy 109, Jansen 93 propels SA to 489; India 9-0 at stumps

Statistical Highlights from IND vs SA, 2nd Test, Day 5, Guwahati

• Simon Harmer dismissed Dhruv Jurel three times in this series. The right-handed batter scored 3 runs at an average of 1.0 against the off-spinner.
• Simon Harmer now has 17 wickets in Freedom Trophy 2025-26. That’s the most wickets for a SA spinner in a Test series against India.
• Simon Harmer (27) has overtaken Paul Adams (23) to become the leading wicket-taker amongst SA spinners against India in Tests.
• Sai Sudharsan (139) overtakes Rahul Dravid (127) to face the most deliveries for India in the fourth innings against South Africa at home.
• Sai Sudharsan played the slowest knock at no. 3 for India in Tests (14 off 139 at SR of 10.07). The previous slowest knock was by Rahul Dravid (14 off 109 at 12.84) against Australia in Melbourne 1999. (Minimum 100 balls faced).
• Aiden Markram recorded the most catches (9) as a non-wicket keeper in a Test match. He overtook Ajinkya Rahane and Ab de Villiers (8) in the list.
• Simon Harmer (17) overtakes Dale Steyn (15) to register the most wickets in a Test series in India.
• India suffered their biggest loss in terms of runs in Tests. The previous biggest loss came against Australia (by 342 runs) in Nagpur 2004.
• India suffered their third whitewash (0-2) in a home Test series, out of which two have come against South Africa.

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