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 Some wins bring joy and leave a subtle flavour behind. Some stand tall in your memory, like pillars. This was a pillar. Many of us did not believe this team was capable of this, for they gave the appearance of being condemned men. Defeat seemed inevitable and would have come as no surprise. But sport tests character like nothing else does. India hung in, an opportunity arose, they took it.

South Africa will be chastened for they made the one mistake that teams on top have to guard against. They assumed victory and were made to pay for it. Very very few teams are good when favourites. Now the wallpaper is peeling and they have let the opposition see the cracks beneath. They will be a different team at Durban; either hurt and determined, or wounded and uncertain. Another aspect of character will be revealed.

They are a complex society, sadly full of mistrust. Suspicion colours every move for they are but toddlers as nations go. That is why they must win for their foundations are still fragile and defeat weakens them.

Boeta Dippenaar, surely the replacement top order batsman, doesn’t want to take calls, Nicky Boje has retired amidst complaints, former cricketers aren’t unhappy to see the national side lose and the captain is strangely unpopular in many segments. But he is a fine cricketer and aware of the society he lives in. He will know how important it is to South African cricket to win at Durban and Cape Town.

And India’s cricketers will have to show that this performance was not a fleeting resolution. Lamp posts were being created to hang them, now they are being heralded. Unlike triumph and victory, it is the reactions to them that are the modern impostors and India will know that the difference between the two sides wasn’t large. India showed greater resolve at key moments; at 14 for 2 in the first innings when Tendulkar and Dravid put on 69, in the half hour before lunch on the second day when Sreesanth and Zaheer Khan rocked South Africa and before lunch on the third day when VVS Laxman and Zaheer Khan batted stoically.

The positives, if India can sustain them, are huge. The biggest, even bigger than the brilliance of Sreesanth, was that the seniors showed they belong. When the top players are insecure and unhappy it can have an effect on youngsters, especially those who may not have been picked. That is why it was critical that Tendulkar and Kumble, Laxman and Ganguly performed.

Ganguly has taken his return well. The cricketer in him had been shrouded by the scriptwriters using him for their daily soap. He battled it out here, spoke to the team about being out of the game and what that meant, even ran upto Dravid with a suggestion. And Zaheer Khan too has shown the hunger that being out of the team can produce. He is leaner but the question marks over him, his fitness and commitment, have been dispelled. He is running in hard, batting doggedly and remarkably, fielding with zeal. That had never been a strong point. Being left out was probably the best thing to have happened to him because he has responded admirably and the selectors have done mightily well by picking the right moment for his return.

But amidst the many facets to this match, one will stand out. A fiery young man produced a bowling performance that marks him out to be special. Sreesanth ran in hard and ran in as often as the captain wanted him to and each time the ball left his hand the way he wanted it to. There is an exuberance to his being as you would expect with someone his age and that is good. But he married that to a commitment to cricketing discipline. He bowled with patience, didn’t deviate in search of magic balls and kept his head when running in with the ball. That was sometimes in contrast to what followed, and as he plays more, he will realise that bravery is in bowling the right ball, not providing the right farewell to the batsman; for once the batsman cannot compete, there is no honour in mocking him.

A fine young cricketer has arrived and now he must play with the weight of expectation that has felled many. It is what separates the champions from the challengers. He has the ability, and in good measure, now we will watch how well he can use it.

This is a moment to savour but there are two to play.