It took India three days to manufacture a result and strike the early blow in the four Test series as they rolled the Proteas cheaply.
Granted they were assisted by a pitch in Mohali that was tailored for their spinners and had deteriorated at an alarming rate by the time the Proteas needed to bat second and requiring the 217 for victory.
In the end, India’s spinners made merry and earned the hosts a 108-run victory in the first Test on the weekend.
To give you an idea of just how much of an impact spin played in the match, of the 40 wickets on offer for the bowlers 35 of those were claimed by tweakers.
But Hashim Amla was loathe to blame the conditions and instead felt that his side had rather made questionable decisions when it came to shot-selection.
“We could have applied ourselves a bit better. There were certain decisions we made while batting that weren’t the right decisions,” he said afterwards.
He was happy with the way that the Proteas bowlers had applied themselves in the morning to claim the eight wickets needed to end the Indian innings. At one stage the hosts had looked like setting a formidable target in excess of 250 runs.
“They could have easily got away from us with about 250 plus and that would have been exceptionally difficult.”
“The way we bowled and applied ourselves in the field and with the bat I think was very good just very disappointing we didn’t apply ourselves better and get closer to 200,” he said of their second batting effort.
The teams now move on to Bangalore with the second Test beginning on Saturday and Amla is confident that this outing would have done the squad the world of good as far as adjusting to conditions.
“We made a few mistakes. Credit to India they bowled well. Going into the next Test whatever we are dealt we have prepared amply there were just a few mistakes and unfortunately in this game it costs us.”
“If you look at the game right until the last innings we did pretty well. Kept the game close to us and almost gave ourselves a chance. If the wicket is the same hopefully we don’t make the same mistakes,” said Amla.
