Lungi Ngidi of South Africa celebrates the wicket of Virat Kohli of India during day three of the third Test between the teams at Newlands on Thursday. Picture: Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
The childish temper tantrums of Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli over the past two days of the third and final Test at Newlands should not detract from the gutsy display by the Proteas who proved, in winning the series, that they can play against – and beat – the best in world cricket.
The series came on the back of disruption and controversy at Cricket SA in which everything – from the “taking the knee” demonstrations in support of Black Lives Matter, to the presence of open or subliminal racism in our cricket structures, to the alleged selections of “quota players” – was up for debate.
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In that uncertain and emotional time, the Proteas were facing an uphill task against India. And, for most of the series, they didn’t have the whole-hearted support of many fans, who showed again how fickle South African sports supporters can be.
Yet, they did it. Coming from a thrashing in the first Test, they knuckled down and produced sterling performances
with both bat and ball.
Apart from that – and the Kohli silliness aside – this was the perfect advert for Test cricket: the duel could
have gone either way and was edge-of-the-seat tense most of the time.
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