South Africa cruised to an easy victory over India on day four of the first Test at Bloemfontein. Needing 54 runs to win, Kallis (21) and Kirsten (30) finished off the match in 14.4 overs
Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 96/1, the Indians lost wickets at regular intervals on day four with the top order batsmen getting out to some rank bad shots. Das and Laxman played atrocious shots to get out on consecutive deliveries.
The South African bowlers bowled a tight line and length with skipper Pollock leading by example and accounting for six Indian wickets to bring his match tally to 10. Sehwag -- who scored a century on his debut in the first innings -- looked like scoring runs but in the wake of wickets toppling from the other end, he succumbed to a loss of concentration and perished after scoring 31 off 36 balls.
The top scorer for India was S S Das who made 62 off 96 balls. All the top order Indian batsmen managed to get decent starts but were unable to forge partnerships on an easy paced wicket. The Indian tail wagged for a while with Nehra making 17 and Srinath scoring 16, but by that time the writing was on the wall. Bureau Report