Ahmedabad: With two days left in the second Test of the Future Cup Series at the Sardar Patel Stadium here, there was no way India could have avoided a defeat against South Africa. What they could do, however, was reduce the margin from humiliation to just an embarrassment.
It ended just that way, as the Proteas sealed their domination over the hosts by an innings and 90 runs, which also meant they can't lose the series.
India's innings closed on a brave 328, maybe mulling over what could have been had the batsmen survived even an hour of that ghastly opening session on the first day, when they folded up for 76.
While India receded to easily their lowest ebb in recent memory, South Africa made an emphatic statement on who is the second best team at the moment, purely on form. They did nothing wrong. Nothing went right for India.
South Africa's march towards batting the hosts out of the match was all but accomplished as rains lashed the Motera surface here on Friday, surely to liven things up for the third morning.
Captain Graeme Smith chose to declare as India prepared to face the music once again.
Two sixes from Virender Sehwag in the opening over of India's second innings almost ensured that it wasn't going to be the first innings story retold. Well, almost.
Dale Steyn, the chief wrecker of India's horrific first outing at the Motera here, was hooked, and then flicked over the long leg boundary, after South Africa declared their innings on their overnight 494-7, scripted by AB de Villiers' unbeaten 217 and a majestic century from Jacques Kallis.
In a game which India were chasing ever since it started, the second session was their first, and only, victory. After being 95-3 at lunch, India fought back with Sourav Ganguly and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who scripted an unlikely fightback for the hosts.
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It was India's finest hour in a match full of nightmares. Ganguly was in supreme command, getting firmly behind the rising ball and dropping it down, and meeting the fuller ones with rasping drives. Dhoni, who lived dangerously in the early part of his innings, gained in confidence, defending like he never did before.
Time, a true reflection of five-day cricket, though, was India's biggest enemy. A wicket had to come and it was Ganguly, who nicked one to the wicketkeeper off Steyn after scoring 87. He knew he had nicked it, but tried his best to convince umpire Tony Hill his bat had hit the ground, perhaps in disbelief that a miracle was not to be.
Dhoni stroked a valiant 52 before Ntini snapped him up, while Irfan Pathan remained unbeaten for the second time in the match with 43.
For South Africa, the batsmen made sure that the match was beyond reach for the Indians, to back up a bowling attack full of relentless energy. Steyn finished with eight wickets in the game, while Makhaya Ntini finished it off with his third, ably assisted by Morne Morkel with two wickets in each innings.
The Proteas had exacted revenge on their own ignominy, when they were at the receiving end of a similar defeat at home in 2006-07, when they were shot out for 84 in Johannesburg.
Sehwag, who took first strike, was surprisingly in control. He was content with leaving whatever was bowled wide of the stumps, and knock it around for runs when bowled to him. But Ntini brought an end to his short stay, trapping him leg before.
Jaffer and Rahul Dravid then dropped anchor, something that none of the batsmen were keen to do in that 20-over nightmare on Thursday. They saw off Steyn wicketless, while Morkel cranked up the speed-o-meter, forever pushing the two back into the crease.
The danger of India being subject to similar treatment they received in the first innings, though, began to lurk yet again. In the space of six runs, both Dravid (17) and Jaffer (19) departed to identical dismissals to Morkel and Kallis, the first time a fourth bowler was required by the Proteas in the game.
