India’s defeat in the first Test match in Cape Town, at the hands of South Africa, broke every cricket lover’s heart in the country. Even Harbhajan Singh was depressed with this unfortunate result. This was also true for the Indian captain Virat Kohli.
The batsmen crashed and the captain stressed upon rectifying their mistakes. The players’ performance does everything for the team. If they are not giving their best, they have to lick the sour taste of defeat.
Is it always their bad luck? It is actually easier for a captain to blame the loss on other batsmen but his own lack of contribution in the game was also visible to the analysts. I read a comment by a troll which went like this: “Kohli sirf Indian pitch per century bana sakte ho (Kohli can only make centuries on Indian pitches).”
It was super hard for Virat to accept the defeat, but he appeared to have not returned to form after his wedding. When the batting order begins to dwindle on the pitch, there remains little scope of winning. Desperate players often have to play along, no matter how slowly the runs are accumulated.
After trying every manoeuvre, our players still failed to sail over the target set by the opponent team. They kept committing mistakes and stopped playing aggressively. In the end, all of this resulted in a 72-run defeat for India.
India had looked to seize control of the test when they bowled South Africa out for a score of 130 runs. But they found the home attack on the seamer-friendly wicket too much of a challenge.
The coming clash in Pretoria on Saturday will decide whether this series is going to be an uphill battle for the Indian cricket team. Like everything, defeating another cricket team can be very hectic and competitive.