Indian newspapers had plenty of fodder for their sports pages after the national cricket team succumbed to a series defeat in South Africa after losing the second Test at Centurion by 135 runs on Wednesday.
Test debutant Lungi Ngidi sensationally bowled South Africa to a series-clinching win, taking six for 39on the fifth day of the second Test. Ngidi, 21, did much of the damage as India lost seven wickets in an extended morning’s play at SuperSport Park and were bowled out for 151 after resuming at 35/3.
The loss meant that India’s record of never having won a Test series in South Africa would stay for another three years at least till the next tour. While that itself was enough for headline writers to be brutal, India captain Virat Kohli was generous enough to be in a rather combative mood in his post-match press conference, which added fuel to the fire.
‘Lungi dance’
But first, let’s start with the expected ones. Puns on Lungi Ngidi’s first name were bound to be there, and The Tribune did not disappoint.
The Tribune also reported Kohli’s fiery press conference. “It is always tough for a captain to address a press conference after his team has suffered a miserable defeat,” wrote Ajay Naidu. “And when the captain happens to be as sharp with his verbal volleys as he is with his bat, the media interaction can become an edgy affair.”
Navbharat Times also went with a “Lungi” reference. “India get entangled in Lungi,” its headline said. And that wasn’t all. Also check out the report that went with it, which really would be lost in translation, but here’s an attempt: “Lungi is very popular among Indians. They love the Lungi Dance. But they did not like the South African Lungi and neither could they dance in front of him. The entire Indian team got entangled in a Lungi and got bowled out for 151 chasing a 287-run target.”
On Kohli’s presser
The Indian press also had a field day with Kohli’s aggressive media interaction.
Mid-Day ran excerpts from the press conference after Anand Vasu wrote, “Virat Kohli does not believe that he should have to answer tough questions, even when India have lost in dramatic fashion.”
DNA also went with a similar headline to Mid-Day along with an agency report:
The Economic Times’ headline was in a similar vein:
“To borrow Abraham Lincoln’s sentence about not being able to fool all of the people all of the time into a cricketing context, India has become a team that wins all of its matches in some conditions, almost none of its matches in others, and still believes everyone will think they are the best in the world,” began Anand Vasu’s report.
The New Indian Express had one of the best headlines, mocking Kohli’s repeated usage of the word “intent” in earlier press conferences:
“And you thought this was India’s best chance to win a series in South Africa,” wrote Venkata Krishna B in a rather mordacious report.
The Times of India surprisingly chose to focus on a different quote of Kohli from the press conference:
The coverage was also hardly critical of the India captain but that’s not to say K Shriniwas Rao’s report did not find faults with the touring party’s cricket on the field:
“On a wicket that couldn’t have been more Indian on South African soil, chasing a target that couldn’t have been any lesser given their impressive bowling effort on Day Four, looking to survive in a series that kept ringing curtains for them with each passing over, India’s batsmen could’ve done far better,” he wrote.
‘Surrender’
The word “surrender” was also a popular one. Mail Today was so hurt with India’s loss that they ran the headline and reportage across two pages.
“There is only one problem with miracles,” wrote Ajay Naidu. “If they happen too often they cease to be miracles. In the event, the few, die-hard Indian supporters who had turned up at the SuperSport Park on Wednesday morning hoping for a titanic turnaround in India’s fortunes suddenly found themselves attending a mass funeral.”
Hindustan Times’ headline also had “surrender” in it:
“There must be something fundamentally wrong with Cheteshwar Pujara’s approach, being run out twice in a match,” wrote Somshuvra Laha. “There must be something fundamentally wrong with a team’s thinking when they go with Rohit Sharma’s form at home ahead of the proven Ajinkya Rahane and opt out of the only warm-up match. This result, though dreaded, isn’t surprising after all.”
“Weak batting loses series,” read Amar Ujala’s headline. “Indian batsmen meekly bent their knees in front of South Africa’s pace attack,” said the report. “The Virat Brigade had gone to South Africa to end a 25-year drought but now face the danger of being at the wrong end of a clean sweep in the three-Test series.”
The Indian Express went with a relatively subtle headline but Sandeep Dwivedi’s report was a lot more scathing: “The Centurion result – India’s 135 runs loss before lunch on Day 5 – showed that this mush-twirling, frequently sleeve-folding bunch of tough-talking boys aren’t quite prepared – or make it capable – of breaking new ground.
“When it comes to their cricket, they aren’t too different from the better-behaved and less-in-the-face teams from the past. All that has changed over the period of time are the sound bites at the post-defeat press conference. They have gone from apologetic to aggressive but the results abroad have remained the same. Maybe, they might even end up not as popular as that under-achieving golden generation.”
As for Mumbai Mirror, the tabloid went with a headline that the city’s residents would have come across often in the last few months. After collapsing foot bridges and fatal fires, it was the Indian cricket team’s series defeat that was labelled a “disaster waiting to happen”.
Vijay Tagore wrote, “They say you can survive a goof-up once, not twice. India had three botch-ups in the form of run-outs and six in the way of dropped catches. In a must-win Test, those were not just mishaps but disasters. There was no way they could have survived those many errors. They did not, surrendering the series in the hands of South Africa meekly.”
Dainik Bhaskar went with its usual long sentence for a headline, saying, “After winning a record nine series in a row, Team India lost one after three years and 33 Tests.” The Hindi daily also called Cheteshwar Pujara a “run-out specialist”. The photo was, however, the winner:
With inputs from AFP
Corrections and clarifications: This story has been updated with reports from the Economic Times, the New Indian Express and the Times of India.
