India on Sunday defeated South Africa by 203 runs in the first Test match of the three-match series at the ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
Rohit Sharma was the hero of the match with scores of 176 and 127 in the first and second innings, respectively. Meanwhile, Mayank Agarwal impressed with his knock of 215 in the first innings.
Apart from the two, R Ashwin, with the figures of 7 for 145 in the first innings, made the Proteas suffer.
After setting a target of 395 runs for South Africa in the fourth innings, India managed to bundle out Proteas for 191 runs.
Earlier, India skipper Virat Kohli opted to bat. And the decision turned out to be a prudent one as Rohit and Mayank put an opening stand of 317 runs, thus helping India post a mammoth total of 502 runs for 7 before declaring the first innings.
However, South Africa, too, were on the money in their first innings and posted 431 runs before getting bundled out. Dean Elgar was the saviour for the guests with his gritty 160, and wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock’s 111 also helped for the cause.
While India came to bat for the second time, Rohit’s dominance on the field gave the hosts the edge in the match and the hapless Proteas could only see India rushing to 323 for 4 before getting an invitation to chase a giant target of 395 runs.
The two teams meet next for the second rubber of the series in Pune starting on 10 October.
Brief scorecard: India 502 for 7 declared (Mayank Agarwal 215, Rohit Sharma 176; Keshav Maharaj 3/189) and 323 for 4 declared (Rohit Sharma 127, Cheteshwar Pujara 81) defeated South Africa 431 all-out (Dean Elgar 160, Quinton de Kock 111; R Ashwin 7/145) and 191 all-out (Dane Piedt 56, Quinton de Kock 49; Mohammed Shami 5/25) by 203 runs.