‘I will look at it as a regret’ – Former cricketer expresses his remorse on the ending Test series against South Africa as draw

The Indian cricket team’s stellar performance led them to a victory in the second test match against South Africa in India tour of South Africa 2023-24. India and South Africa met for the second test match at Newlands in Cape Town and India registered a victory with seven wickets after losing the first match in Centurion by 32 runs and an innings. 

Despite the team’s exceptional performance, Sanjay Manjrekar was not impressed as he still believes India could have easily won the first test match if they would have put more efforts considering this was the most beatable South African squad. The former cricketer emphasised how Dean Elger’s 185 was the only player who restricted India from winning the first test match. 

“If I am the coach or the captain, I will look at it as a regret. If you look at the past and the teams India had to beat in South Africa, they were tough teams. This was the most beatable South African team. Dean Elgar’s 185 prevented India from actually creating history. Said it before as well that there was no point of a three-match ODI series between the T20Is and the Test with it not even being an ODI World Cup year,” Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo.

“Imagine this South African team without Dean Elgar. They would have lost the first Test. They don’t give that much importance to Test cricket as well so I don’t think the future is rosy. The bowling wasn’t impressive either,” Manjrekar added.

Rohit Sharma on India’s win in 2nd Test Match against South Africa 

In the post match ceremony, the Indian captain Rohit Sharma said, “A great feat. In Centurion, we had to learn from the mistakes we made in that Test. We came back pretty well, especially our bowlers. Even though the conditions were tough for batters, you still go to put the ball in the right areas. Had some plans as to what we wanted to do and the boys got rewarded for it.”

He further added, “We applied ourselves, we batted really well to get a 100-run lead, not pleasing to see the last six wickets. We knew that it’s going to be a short game, we knew every run matters, to get that first innings lead was very important for us.”