• Source:JND
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India vs South Africa: India created history with a famous Test win over South Africa at the Newlands in Cape Town on Thursday, their first-ever Test victory at the venue.

The Rohit Sharma-led side defeated South Africa by seven wickets in just two days to level the series 1-1.

India had their dream of winning their maiden Test series on South Africa soil shattered after a humiliating defeat in the first Test at Centurion.

While the visitors were beaten by an innings and 32 runs in the first Test to go 0-1 down in the series, the star wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul shared his views on how the change of attitude and a mental shift helped the team turn things around in the second match.

 

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"It was just a mental shift during the turnaround time of one day. We were more ready this time and we were ready for a fight. We wanted to get this win and just do our job really well. I think we weren’t really 100% during our last match in terms of batting or bowling," Rahul said on Star Sports.

"We were prepared, but that extra edge or extra fire was missing, credit to South Africa as well, that they didn’t allow us to reach that confidence. They bowled us out very cheaply in both the innings. So, we were really happy that we could bounce off so well," he added.

KL Rahul, who played as a wicketkeeper-batter in the series, taking up the role behind the stumps for the first time in his career in the longest format, had his moment in the all-important series.

The star batter smashed a fighting century in the first innings of the first Test where the other Indian batters looked struggling.

Rahul also went on to share his thoughts on coming back from injury stronger than ever before.

“When I first had an injury, initially it was very frustrating for me, but honestly staying alone was the best thing for me. I was not able to score good runs before injury and there was a lot of criticism I wasn’t enjoying my cricket and being on the ground and getting criticized so often. So that break really helped me and when I started training after surgery, there was some freshness and new energy within me,"

This series was Rahul's first outing in Test cricket after a long injury break. He picked up a thigh injury in IPL 2023 and made his comeback to the side in the Asia Cup 2023.

 

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"I realized how much I love the game and how much I miss playing the game, whether it is doing well or not doing well, that’s secondary but just being on the field wearing the blues or wearing the whites you really sense and understand how much you love this game, and this is all we’ve always done since we were kids," he added.

Talking about the second Test, the match went on to witness the result in well less than two days, making it the shortest ever in the history of the game in terms of balls.