South Africa completed a much-needed victory on Sunday as they ran through England’s batting lineup in two sessions on Day 4 to win the first Test by 107 runs at Centurion and take a 1-0 lead in the 4-match series. The win even broke a run of five successive defeats in Test cricket for South Africa.
This was also the first win for the Prot🅺eas in the ongoing ICC World Test Championship out of the four matches played by them this year.
Brief scores: South Africa 284 (Quinton de Kock 95; Sam Curran 4-58) & 272 (Rassie van der Dussen 51; Jofra Archer 5-102) lead England 181 (Vernon Philander 4-16) & 268 (Rory Burns 84; Kagiso Rabada 4-103) by 205 runs.
Here are some of the best reactions:
Given everything that's occured in South African cricket recently; that's a heck of a victory, .
— Ian Raphael Bishop (@irbishi)
Yessss boys.. great start to the summer. ♓Well done and team..
— JP Duminy (@jpduminy21)
//twitter.com/hershybru/status/12112665331ꦦ97938688
Lovely to watch this!
Proper Gas from & 🔥🔥🔥
— Tabraiz Shamsi (@shamsi90)
There are two ways to get wickets on this Supersport pitch – the disciplined way at low RPO and the short ball high RPO way. England chose the wrong one and it cost them.
— Jacques Rudolph (@Jacques_Rudolph)
꧒Have England forgotten how to play test cri﷽cket 😳 or is it the leadership????
— Tino95 (@tinobest)
The Aussies are playing Great cricket .. I am here in Oz till early Feb .. England are losing again in Tes🎀t cricket .. This is going to be a long few weeks unless they improve very very quickly .. !!!!
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan)
Been so impressed with Anrich Nortje. Hope English cricket keeps its sinful mi🌸tts off him.
— Vithushan Ehantharajah (@Vitu_E)
This is England's 23rd series (2+ Tests) since the start of Ashes 2013/14 – they have lost at least one Test in 21 of these.
The two instances they managed without a loss in a seri🌱es: 2-0 vs SL at home in 2016🍌 and 3-0 vs SL in Sri Lanka in 2018/19.
— Deepu Narayanan (@deeputalks)
SA WIN the first Test by 107 runs!
🌼Inspired & outstanding new ball bowling from KG R🎐abada & Anrich Nortje!
Special debuts for Rassieౠ💯 & Pretorius. This was 🔥
SA 1-0 up with the next T✅est at my beloved Newlands on Friday
— ThePoppingCrease (@PoppingCreaseSA)
South Africa ending a miserable cricketing year on a positive.
Band playing, stands singing, and a team winning.
It's been a long, long time since they won a cricket game of consequence.
The fat lady had now cleared her throat, ready to unleash Shosholoza.
Or Kaptein!— Squinting Quarantino (@whamzam17)
After five consecutive defeats, South Africa secure their first victory inಞ Test cricket for 11 months.
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket)
That was fun 🇿🇦🔥
— Lerato Zondi (@leratomalekutu)
15 Kolpak players in County cricket.
19 other South African-born players with UK/EU pa♕ssports in Cಞounty cricket.Result – South Africa beat England by 107 runs
— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket)
