India lose to South Africa by 408 runs, marking heaviest Test defeat by runs margin

The Indian cricket team slumped to a 408-run defeat against South Africa at Guwahati, its heaviest defeat at home by margin of runs. The result means that Gautam Gambhir’s side were swept 0-2 by South Africa in the two-match Test series at home after losing the second Test. Chasing a target of 549 runs in the final innings on Tuesday-Wednesday, the end came in just 64 overs with Ravindra Jadeja being the top-scorer with 54 runs as India managed to score just 140 runs.

The 408-run defeat against South Africa at Guwahati edged ahead of the 342-run defeat that India had suffered at the hands of Australia back in 2004 in Nagpur. On third spot is the defeat by 341 runs in 2006 to arch-rivals Pakistan in Karachi. Australia had also defeated India by 337 runs at Melbourne in 2007.

The Indians got multiple reprieves in the field on Day 5 with Sai Sudharsan being given a second life thanks to a no ball from Marco Jansen when he was batting on four and Kuldeep Yadav’s catch being dropped by Aiden Markram when he was batting on four. But India could not make the most of these chances. Sudharsan stayed in the middle for 139 balls for his 14 runs while Kuldeep’s stint ended on five runs.

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India had lost the first Test to South Africa by 30 runs on what was a minefield of a pitch at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens. But the Guwahati strip was much more stable.

Across the four innings over the two Tests, the Indian team managed to cross the 200-run mark just once, in the first innings at Guwahati.