Follow UsSouth Africa registered their first ever Test win in India in 15 years when they beat the hosts by 30 runs, defending a small total of 123 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on a Day 3 pitch. The hero of that game, off-spinner Simon Harmer, revealed the kind of celebrations the World Test Champions had after the historic Test win.
“We’re in a nice hotel. Probably some golf tomorrow. We had a couple of beers last night. I think it’s important to celebrate wins, especially here in India, because you don’t know when they’re going to come around again. The senior group here appreciates winning Test match cricket,” Indian Express quoted Harmer as saying to ‘talkSPORTCricket’.
While the 36-year-old has played only 13 Tests so far, he has an experience of over 235 First-Class games where he has taken more than 1000 wickets, and he used it all to claim a game-securing match figure of 8/51 in the Kolkata Test.
Utilising that experience, Harmer tried to decode the kind of wicket the team could expect in Guwahati, which will be hosting its first Test ever when the two teams take on each other from November 22 onwards.
“I think India has never played Test cricket at Guwahati, so I’m sure they are unsure of exactly how it is going to go. I think they’re going to feel that having the best Test bowler in the world and him not having an impact on day three, they would want to get him more into the game, so is it going to be seamer-friendly?”
“You don’t know what you’re going to get. They obviously want to win so they are going to make sure that the wicket suits whatever team they want to select,” Harmer said.
While they broke the 15-year barrier to win their first Test in India, the Temba Bavuma-led side would be looking for nothing less than a first Test series win in India in the last 25 years.