IND vs SA, 1st Test: Simon Harmer hopeful despite South Africa’s precarious position

South African spinner Simon Harmer refused to rule his side out of contention in the opening Test against India.

On Saturday, at the Eden Gardens, the Proteas endured a disastrous final half of Day 2, as they collapsed to 93 for seven in their second innings, leaving them just 63 runs ahead of India.

“Yeah, I think it’s pretty evident that if we want to win this Test, we need to score as many runs as possible,” said Harmer at the post-day press conference.

“I think there was a stat put up today that there’s only been one total of over 100 chased in the fourth innings here. So we need to try and get as many as we can and get past 100. If we can get to 150 that would be incredible.

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“But it’s obviously quite difficult at the moment to score runs. India has bowled well, so we’ve got our work cut out for us tomorrow. But I think Temba [Bavuma] showed today, with his application and temperament, a blueprint of how we need to go about doing it,” said Harmer.

Harmer exuded further confidence, as he laid faith in the ever-shifting sands of Test cricket.

“Just the way that today panned out, you know, cricket’s a funny game. We could be sitting here tomorrow night, [with a] completely different story. We [could] manage to get to 150 or more and get India out for 80,” said Harmer, prompting a set of nervous chuckling from the press folk.

“You can laugh about it now. He who cries first, laughs last,” added Harmer, tongue in cheek.

Earlier, Harmer had produced an eye-catching display of spin bowling to claim a four-wicket haul. His effort helped South Africa almost make up for its under-par first-innings total (159), as India ended just 30 runs ahead.

The off-spinner pointed out the key was not to get carried away with the assistance offered by the conditions.

“In an ideal situation, you’ve got 300 on the board and you can set attacking fields, but it becomes quite intricate when you’ve only got 150 on the board and you need to take wickets, but you also can’t leave runs.

“It’s quite evident that the pitch is going to do enough, it’s just about not getting carried away and making sure that you’re putting as many balls in the right areas as you possibly can,” said Harmer.

Published on Nov 15, 2025