W.W.W..W.WW – The story of a crazy day's Test cricket

South Africa were bundled out for 55, India – arguably more remarkably – for 153. They had been 153 for 4, and then lost 6 for 0 in 11 balls

Nick Friend | 03/01/2024 at 16:56

In the end, South Africa and India fell two wickets short of sharing a record that neither was desperate to hold.

The 25 wickets on the first day of the 1902 Lord's Ashes Test remains the most to fall in the history of the game's longest format, but January 3, 2024, sits just a couple behind.

South Africa were bundled out for 55, India – arguably more remarkably – for 153. They had been 153 for 4, and then lost 6 for 0 in 11 balls.

As Ravi Shastri put it on commentary: "If someone went round the corner for a dump and has come back, India has been bowled out for 153!"

So much happened that had never happened before, that it's hard to know where to begin. But Tristan Stubbs' Test career has begun inauspiciously, just the second man to be dismissed twice on the first day of life as a Test cricketer, the first instance since Harry Butt in 1896.

At the other end of the spectrum, Dean Elgar leaves the Test arena having, too, been dismissed twice in a day. He earned a congratulatory hug – for his career, not his day's work – from Virat Kohli on his way off. Those two have played this game for long enough to know how fickle it is.

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^{South Africa and India traded wickets on an extraordinary first day at Newlands (Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images)}

Kohli holds the game's highest score – 46 in 59 balls on a Newlands pitch that has no obvious demons to it – and is one of 10 players among 27 individual innings in the match to have hit a boundary. Seven players have reached double figures, only four have reached 20.

There have been six ducks. From Shreyas Iyer – at No.5 – downwards on India's card, only KL Rahul got off the mark.

Earlier, South Africa had made the lowest Test score against India and their seventh-lowest of all time, narrowly beating the previous worst 92 years ago.

India took a first-innings lead after 58 deliveries, and yet by the close of play South Africa were 36 runs behind with seven wickets remaining in their second innings.

The Test, at Newlands, is the second in a two-match series.