Ahmedabad: The last time India lost a Test match in less than three days at home was 2001 against Australia at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. That dubious record was broken on Saturday when Anil Kumble and his men could not resist hostile South African bowling for the second time at Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad to lose the Test by an innings and 90 runs.
On Day II play was stopped early due to rains and the resultant moisture freshened up the pitch.
South Africa decided to put the onus back on his bowlers by declaring on their overnight score of 494 -7 and India needed to score 419 runs just to make the visitors bat again.
For the South African pace battery the message was clear - bowl quick.
But India landed the first punch when Virender Sehwag hoisted express fast bowler Dale Steyn for two sixes in the first over of the second innings but it didn't last too long.
Sehwag was trapped LBW by Makhaya Ntini for 17. Rahul Dravid and Wasim Jaffer put on 33 before the former captain was consumed by the pace of Morne Morkel and just six runs later; Jaffer fell too after scoring just 19.
The experienced pair of Sourav Ganguly and VVS Laxman got together to restore some sanity to proceedings and 55 runs were added before Laxman chose bravado over dour resistance.
He tried to chase a wide delivery from Morkel only to see the ball kiss the bat and land safely in the gloves of wicketkeeper Mark Boucher.
Ganguly though kept the South Africans at bay with some eye-catching strokes that carried him to a half-century.
In the company of a resilient MS Dhoni, he took India to tea without any further loss.
The pair carried their partnership past the 100-run mark but was separated by an umpiring error. Ganguly was 13 short of a 16th Test century when Boucher and Steyn appealed and the umpire raised his finger.
Ganguly was clearly an unhappy man as he walked off the pitch.
Dhoni reached his ninth half-century in Tests and his first in 11 innings to give the fans some reason to cheer but it was short-lived joy.
The Indian vice-captain fell to Ntini to leave India perilously placed and was soon joined by his skipper Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh in the pavilion.
The match ended when Ntini shattered the stumps of S Sreesanth to register South Africa's their biggest win against India in India.
In 2000, the visitors had won by an innings and 71 runs in Bangalore.
The defeat was also India's fourth-largest defeat at home and also their worst in nearly 50 years.
In 1959 Australia won a Test against India by an innings and 127 runs in Delhi and the loss was also India's first innings defeat since the 2001 Colombo (SSC) Test against Sri Lanka.
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