Centurion, Dec 20 (IANS) Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni Monday admitted that the deficit was too much for India to cover as they suffered an embarrassing innings and 25 runs loss to South Africa in the first cricket Test here.
Dhoni said the Indian batsmen did a good job in the second innings when they piled up 459 runs, but they were bowled out for 136 in their first essay.
‘The deficit was too much to handle, and South Africa got too many runs. It was a good show by the batsmen in the second innings,’ said Dhoni.
The India captain said that for South Africa, who declared their first innings at 620 for four, the job was half done.
‘After they won the toss it was a job half done, but they had to bowl well and they did,’ he said.
Dhoni, however, wanted to take some positives from the defeat.
‘Most of the batsmen got off to a good start in the second innings, that’s a big positive. But there are grey areas. Our bowling has to improve, and we are looking forward to having Zaheer Khan back in the side. I’ve lost quite a few tosses, but it’s important now to take some time off and then get back into the groove,’ said Dhoni.
Man of the match Jacques Kallis, who hit his maiden double century, said it was a memorable moment for him.
‘It was a very special moment. It was a good all-round effort from us, we put in a good performance on day one which put us ahead of the eight-ball. Centurion is a big scoring ground and we came into this Test looking to be very positive with both bat and ball,’ he said.
South African captain Graeme Smith said it was nice to start the much-hyped series with a win.
‘Obviously very happy, it’s a big series, the build-up has been big and it’s nice to come out and secure a big win. The bowlers did very well and bowled in the right areas on the first day. We wanted to be positive in our first innings, and to take the game forward like that, the way the batsmen played, it was great Test cricket. We’ve had terrific support from the fans, looking forward to Christmas with our families and then on to Durban,’ he said.
