- Thursday, April 03, 2025
The game lasted only 642 deliveries, 14 less than the previous shortest match that was played in 1932 in Australia.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA eventually won the dramatic second Test against South Africa at Newlands Cricket Stadium in Cape Town on Thursday (4) by seven wickets and the game, which got over in the second session of the second day, went into the history books as the shortest Test ever played. The win meant India drew the two-Test series 1-1.
The Cape Town game lasted 642 balls, 14 less than the previous shortest match that featured Australia and South Africa in Melbourne 92 years ago.
South Africa, who resumed from their overnight score of 62 for 3, needed 36 more runs to erase the first-innings deficit with India, were all out for 176 with seamer Jasprit Bumrah taking six wickets for 61 runs. Opener Aiden Markram, who was unbeaten overnight, scored 106 of the South African total. David Bedingham (11) and Marco Jansen (11) were the next best scorers of the innings on the second day. Captain Dean Elgar made 12.
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Bumra ended up with eight wickets in the match while Siraj got seven.
Needing 79 to win and square the series, the Indian openers started off briskly with Yashasvi Jaiswal hitting 28 in 23 balls. He perished after adding 44 runs with captain Rohit Sharma who remained unbeaten on 17. India also lost Shubman Gill (10) and Virat Kohli (12) but Shreyas Iyer hit the winning runs.
Read: India lose 6 wickets for no run after skittling out South Africa for 55 runs
The total duration of the game was 107 overs. South Africa were all out for 55 in their first inning while India were bowled out for 153 in their first on Day 1. Siraj was picked as the player of the match while Elgar (201 runs) and Bumrah (12 wickets) were chosen as the players of the series.
This was also India’s first-ever win in a Test match in Cape Town in their seventh attempt. They lost the first match in Centurion by an inning and 32 runs.
It was also the second time that India drew a Test series in South Africa after the 1-1 result in 2010-11.
India drew the T20 series with the Proteas 1-1 and won the one-day international series 2-1 before the red-ball format.
