'You don't come to a country to win a Test match, you obviously want to win the series.'
South Africa walked off Eden Gardens on Sunday wearing a glow of a Test win in India after 15 years. For a side that has spent the last few seasons chiselling its identity around resilience, this was the kind of victory that it goes to the record book and straight into the bloodstream.
Head coach Shukri Conrad, usually measured in his words, didn’t hide what this meant. Or what he wants next.
"This was right up there for us. Coming to India, playing at Eden Gardens, doing something we haven't done for 15 years, this is right up there."
But for Conrad, basking isn’t part of the job description.
"We won a Test match in Pakistan, we've now won a Test match here but the job's far from done. You don't come to a country to win a Test match, you obviously want to win the series."
The win didn’t arrive wrapped in comfort. South Africa began Day 3 wobbling at seven down, the lead a fragile 63, and India circling. But Bavuma’s men have made a habit of refusing convenient narratives. The skipper dug in for a gritty, unbeaten 55 -- the kind of innings that doesn’t make highlight reels but wins dressing rooms -- stretching the target to a tricky 124.
From there, the bowlers took over. Simon Harmer led the charge, hunting patiently on a turning surface, the attack squeezing India out in just 35 overs. The scale of the task wasn’t lost on Conrad.
"There was prodigious turn, and the Indian quartet of spinners just don't give you anything. You throw Jasprit (Bumrah) in there with a new ball and when it starts reverse-swinging, both him and (Mohammed) Siraj are obviously world-class."
"It makes our victory even sweeter that we were able to contend with all of that and come out on top. It gives you a belief that you can mix it with the best and do special things."
Belief has, in many ways, become this team’s secret weapon. From the ninth-wicket Houdini act in Pakistan last Boxing Day to the audacious, joint second-highest chase at Lord’s in the WTC final earlier this year, South Africa have built a reputation as a side that stays in the fight long after logic tells them not to.
Conrad knows it better than anyone.
"I'm so proud of the group in terms of the belief that they've got and how they pull together as a unit. It will do wonders for our psyche and it will do wonders for us going forward."
"Whilst we might not have the ability that a lot of teams have, or we haven't tapped that ability yet, what we lack in that, we certainly make up for in our ability to play as a unit and the resilience we show. We never give up."
With the series now crackling with possibility, South Africa carry a 1–0 lead into Guwahati, where the second Test begins on November 22. A win there would give Conrad and his team a Test series triumph on Indian soil in 24 years!
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