Short but not 2 sweet!

Jasprit Bumrah (centre) celebrates the wicket of South Africa’s David Bedingham at Cape Town yesterday. PICS/PTI, GETTY IMAGES

The shortest match in the history of Test cricket ended midway through the second day with only 642 deliveries bowled, during which time 33 wickets fell in a damning indictment of the playing surface. When the dust settled, India eked out a commendable seven-wicket victory, their first in seven tries at Newlands, to square the two-Test series against South Africa 1-1.

Rohit Sharma became the only captain after Mahendra Singh Dhoni to leave these shores without surrendering a Test series, a fact he and his team should be understandably proud of after the three-day surrender in Centurion last week.

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Virat Kohli presents his India jersey to retiring Dean Elgar

Aiden Markram produced one of the finest centuries of all time in a game where the next highest score was 46, but not even his majestic 106 could rally South Africa from the depths of 55 all out on the first morning. The right-handed opener's magnificent counter-attack on a track where a ball with the batsman's name appeared round the corner took South Africa to an overall lead of 79. Armed with a feisty, aggressive approach, India scaled the target down in just 12 overs.

Perfect start

Markram and David Bedingham were tasked with carrying the second innings forward when South Africa resumed Thursday's skirmishes on 62-3, 36 behind. Jasprit Bumrah, who bowled tirelessly while reprising Player of the Match Mohammed Siraj's six-wicket burst of the first dig, got India off to the perfect start with Bedingham's scalp in the first over, but Markram wasn't going down without a fight.

Occasionally chancing his arm but interspersing that with numerous jaw-dropping cricketing shots, Markram defied India for nearly three hours. He had a huge slice of luck on 73 when KL Rahul shelled him off Bumrah, but that's no more than any batsman deserved on a pitch where the bounce was variable, movement pronounced and where survival was a lottery, not a matter of skill.

Fighting partnership

Kagiso Rabada was a dormant partner in an eighth-wicket stand of 51 with Markram taking a shine to Prasidh Krishna, who leaked 20 in his first over. It wasn't until Siraj dismissed him, caught at deep mid-off by Rohit, that India could breathe easy, Bumrah finishing off South Africa's second innings at 176, at the stroke of lunch.

The 40-minute interval allowed India to formulate a game plan based on aggression, with Yashasvi Jaiswal donning the role of the attacker. A first-ball four off Rabada set the tone and while Jaiswal did ride his luck, his hand of 28 in an opening salvo of 44 eased the jangling nerves in the dressing room.

Handy contributions from Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli hauled India to the doorstep of victory, Rohit watching from the other end as Shreyas Iyer deposited Marco Jansen to the long-on fence to bring up the winning boundary. It wasn't the farewell stand-in skipper Dean Elgar would have envisioned, but South Africa were hoisted with their own petard.

One
Only India among sub-continent teams have registered a Test victory in Cape Town

Brief scores
South Africa 55 & 176 (A Markram 106; J Bumrah 6-61, M Kumar 2-56) lost to India 153 & 80-3 (Y Jaiswal 28; M Jansen 1-15) by seven wickets