Riding on debutant paceman Lungi Ngidi's six-wicket haul, South Africa thrashed an underwhelming India by 135 runs on Day 5 of the second Test at the SuperSport Park, Centurion, on Wednesday. With the win, South Africa have taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series even as Virat Kohli lost his first Test series as India skipper.
According to South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis, the hosts were pretty much on top of India in all the five days of the game. "It took a lot of hard work over the last five days. We were on top pretty much most of the times," he said in the post-match presentation.
Du Plessis said after a not-so-impressive last session of the opening day, the Proteas showed a lot of character in the next four days to pull off the comprehensive win.
"It was one of the harder Tests, given it was tough to pick wickets. After Day 1, we were very disappointed. In that last 45 minutes, we gave India a sniff but we made sure we showed character over the last four days," he said.
"We were short in the first innings. We needed to get 400 but for me the vital time was the second innings. We kept pushing and we knew anything over 250 would be challenging."
The South African skipper had special praise for debutant fast bowler Lungi Ngidi, who returned with figures of 6/39 to dismantle India in the second innings to earn the man-of-the-match award.
"It was special performance by Ngidi. He's a great guy and we welcome him into the team. I look at the person's personality and he's a wonderful human being," du Plessis said.
(With PTI inputs)
