'India's most abject Test performance': Team India get blasted on social media after Centurion Test defeat

Indian cricket team came under severe criticism on social media platforms including X (formerly Twitter) after they suffered a crushing defeat by an innings on Thursday to South Africa in the Centurion Test. The Proteas handed India an innings and 32 runs defeat in the first Test of the two-match series to take a 1-0 lead. The match got over inside three days after India were bowled out for just 131 in their second innings. Day 3 of the match began with Dean Elgar and Marco Jansen forging a 111-run partnership as South Africa took a crucial 163-run first innings lead. India would have planned to take the match as deep as possible but a poor performance with the bat saw them fold in just 34.1 overs. Only two batters managed to cross the 10-run mark. Virat Kohli was the top-scorer for India with a fighting 76 and earned some praise on X for his gritty knock. Shubhman Gill was the next-highest scorer with 26. Rohit Sharma was dismissed for a duck, while Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul scored six and four runs respectively. Yashasvi Jaiswal added five. Ravichandran Ashwin (0), Shardul Thakur (2), Jasprit Bumrah (0) and Mohammed Siraj (4) failed to add anything major from the lower-order, while Prasidh Krishna stayed unbeaten on 0. Here’s how fans and experts reacted to India’s massive defeat:

Kohli was praised for his fighting knock

The second Test will be played at Newlands and will start on 3 January.