Graeme Smith revels in South Africa victory in India

Nagpur : India found their No 1 ranking under threat after South Africa orchestrated their first defeat on home soil in almost two years on Tuesday.

Clinical South Africa won the first Test by an innings and six runs to move into a strong position to wrest back the top ranking, taking a 1-0 lead into the final match of the two-Test series starting in Kolkata on Sunday.

Fast bowler Dale Steyn returned a match haul of 10-108 and left-arm spinner Paul Harris bowled a marathon 38 overs including 17 maidens for his three wickets in the second innings to frustrate India.

India were bowled out for 319, despite Sachin Tendulkar (100) scoring his 46th Test century, to give the tourists the advantage in an intriguing series between the top-ranked teams.

Terrific cricket

"We know how tough it is to play (in India), how satisfying it is to get a victory; we got one in 2008 and we had to work just as hard for it and played terrific cricket," South Africa captain Graeme Smith said.

Steyn, the world's top-ranked bowler, had taken five wickets to set up South Africa's win in Ahmedabad two years ago, the last time India lost a Test at home. India drew that series 1-1 by winning the third and final Test on an unpredictable Kanpur pitch.

Yesterday's crushing defeat with a day to spare ended India's undefeated 14-Test streak that allowed them to climb to the top of the official rankings in December.

It was also Mahendra Singh Dhoni's first defeat in his 12-match career as skipper, putting pressure on the charismatic wicketkeeper-batsman who needs to win the final test to draw the series if India are to hold on to their top ranking.

"This is the one thing that we really want to tick off as a team you know, to win here in India," said Smith.

"In a two-match series we have taken that first step to win the series; a massive call for all of us."

Statistics

Sachin Tendulkar registered his 46th Test hundred. His third, in three Tests. It may be recalled he also scored hundreds (105 & 143) against Bangladesh in two consecutive Tests last month.

Sachin Tendulkar's (100) was his highest score in a "follow on" innings of a match, his previous highest being 64, against New Zealand at Napier 2008-09.

Ten of Tendulkar's 46 hundreds have now been in lost causes. Tendulkar has now scored four hundreds against South Africa, three of them have been in matches India have lost. His 111 in 1992-93 at the Wanderers however was in a drawn match.

Dale Steyn (10-108) took 10 wickets in an innings for the fourth time in his career.

Dale Steyn, however, becomes the first South African bowler to claim 10 wickets on Indian soil. Interestingly the last visiting pace bowler to take 10 wickets in a match on Indian soil was New Zealand's Richard Hadlee, who claimed 10-88 at Bombay in 1988-89.

MS Dhoni tasted first defeat in 12 Tests as captain. He has won eight and drawn three with a win percentage of 66.66.

— Mohandas Menon

South Africa 1st innings: 558-6 decl

India 1st innings: 233

India 2nd innings (following on):

G. Gambhir b Morkel 1

V. Sehwag c Smith b Steyn 16

M. Vijay c Morkel b Harris 32

S. Tendulkar b Harris 100

S. Badrinath c Boucher b Parnell 6

MS Dhoni c de Villiers b Harris 25

W. Saha lbw b Steyn 36

H. Singh lbw b Parnell 39

Z. Khan c Harris b Kallis 33

A. Mishra b Steyn 0

I. Sharma not out 0

Extras (b15, lb8, w6, nb2) 31

Total (for all out in 107.1 overs) 319

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Gambhir), 2-24 (Sehwag), 3-96 (Vijay), 4-122 (Badrinath), 5-192 (Tendulkar), 6-209 (Dhoni), 7-259 (Harbhajan), 8-318 (Zaheer), 9-318 (Saha), 10-319 (Mishra).

Bowling: Steyn 18.1-1-57-3, Morkel 21-6-65-1 (w6, nb1), Parnell 13-2-58-2, Harris 38-17-76-3, Kallis 12-3-19-1, Duminy 5-0-21-0 (nb1).

Result: South Africa won by an innings and six runs

Toss: South Africa

Umpires: Ian Gould (ENG) and Steve Davis (AUS)

TV umpire: Amiesh Saheba (IND)

Match referee: Andy Pycroft (ZIM)