Visakhapatnam: South Africa competed with India for three days of the first Test, but as happens so often in the sub-continent, they were blown away by on the last two days to capitulate to a 203-run drubbing in the first Test at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium on yesterday.

Encouragement came in the form of a first innings tally of 431 — in seven completed innings in 2015, their highest was 214 and they were shot out for under 150 four times — studded by hundreds from senior batsmen Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock. That they were still comprehensively outplayed must be a reality check of sorts, but Faf du Plessis chose to focus on the positives, at least in public.