Vizag defeat a cruel reality check for South Africa about their own inadequacies

When the South African team landed on Indian soil last month for the three-match Test series, you could sense that they were greeted by imaginary “Welcome to Hell” signs, not by the Indian fans, but by their own minds. Of course, this was a tactic used by Galatasaray fans back in the day to intimidate Manchester United players, but unlike the folks in Turkey, both the Indian players and fans knew that there was no fear that was needed to be instilled, for it was already done four years ago.

Heading into the series, more than anything else, South Africa’s chances were built on one single coefficient - hope. There was hope that the ghosts of 2015 could definitely be overcome, there was hope that the youngsters would rise up to the occasion and there was hope that ample preparation that they’d put in ahead of the series - arriving a month and a half early for spin camps and ‘A’ tours - would pay off.  But alas, hope can only get you so far and like South Africa learned in Vizag, it, at times, could turn out to be extremely deceptive. 

From one to eleven (or fourteen, should you consider the whole squad), no player had a proven track record or evidence to suggest they'd turn up the heat and put the ball in India's court. Those who had succeeded in recent times - Maharaj, Markram, de Kock - had never previously encountered a task of such gargantuan magnitude and those who actually did come across it in the past - Elgar, du Plessis, Bavuma, Rabada - had gone back home dilapidated, covering their face in embarrassment.

Du Plessis’ very first task, that of winning the toss, went awry, meaning his team were already handicapped, knowing they needed to bat last on an Indian pitch. It was time for all the prayers and preparation to be put to the test and in the very first hour of the game, Rabada and Philander realized that India were no Pakistan and that the pitch was no Wanderers. Meanwhile, Keshav Maharaj, the man who carried the hopes and expectations of his nation - thanks to his performances and him being a spinner - started wondering whether all the tales and hymns about Indian pitches being a spinner's paradise that were sung to him were actually a myth.

Within the first two days, the South Africans learned that what stood in front of them was not something their size, not even something double of their size, but something colossal, a force that in the past had crushed many a life in the past that dared to compete against it. But they had belief, they had hope and they knew they were here to compete. They, like everyone else, loved an underdog story and wanted to create a David vs Goliath tale of their own.

Through Elgar and de Kock, they sucker-punched India. For one whole day, they stood firm, tussled hard, combated against their demons and kept their enemies at bay. They launched an attack that neither India nor the rest of the world that they were capable of. Du Plessis and his men managed to give Virat Kohli a sleepless night and for 15 hours, there was realistic hope of them re-writing a pre-written tale and altering an event that was supposed to be a fixed point in time. In the “Doctor Who” universe, rewriting history by altering fixed points in time rips a hole in the universe, and one can assume that the same would have happened had the Saffers somehow found a way to win. 

But no, it wasn’t to be. 15 hours of rejoice was all they were going to get. Against any other team in any part of the world, the Elgar-de Kock partnership might have demoralized the opponents. The wicket of Mayank Agarwal might have opened the floodgates. The pressure put on Pujara might have triggered an internal capitulation within the team. But not in this part of the world, not against this Indian team, for there's a reason why no one has come close to conquering their fortress in the past 7 years.

The events that unravelled on the morning of Day 5 - something which struck a scary similarity to the catastrophe of 2015 - never seemed like they would come to life after South Africa’s performance on Day 3. Yet, they still did. While the performances of their batters, Elgar, De Kock and Muthusmay in particular, inspired hope and served as a silver lining, one wonders if fear and apprehension would trump hope and positivity, because let’s be honest - if South Africa are going to falter to a crushing 203-run defeat despite their batters “exceeding expectations”, what will be in store when they actually have a bad day? The wickets, too, in Pune and Ranchi, aren’t going to get any better. 

While Day 3 was an escape from reality, a pleasant surprise to themselves and the rest of the world, it eventually turned out to be nothing more than a false dawn. In the end, all it was was a self-inflicted trap, a bubble of deception built around false hope - one that was burst with disdain by the Indians. A string of events that was set up for a hero's fall instead turned out to be an anti-climatic, not-so-new massacre, similar to the Mountain crushing Oberyn Martell’s head in the fourth season of Game of Thrones. 

If there ever was any misconception about where South Africa stand and what lies ahead of them, Vizag has ripped it apart, crushed it and tossed it into the bin.  Of course, the "ifs" and "buts" will always be thrown around and that uncertainty is still keeping South Africa alive in the series, but all evidence, all signs and all facts point towards this tour being yet another forgettable one for the visitors.