South Africa beat India by innings and 6 runs

The miracle that India needed to save the match against South Africa in the first cricket Test in Nagpur on Tuesday did not happen and even though Tendulkar (100) starred in two brief partnerships and the tail wagged for a while too, it was not enough to avert what was Mahendra Singh Dhoni's first Test defeat as captain that came with full one day to spare.

Following on, the home side that resumed on 66 for two Tuesday morning, folded for 319 in their second essay to allow South Africa to take a 1-0 lead in the two-match series.

Down the order, Wriddhiman Saha (36), Harbhajan Singh (39) and Zaheer Khan (33) showed the kind of grit that was missing in most of their frontline batting colleagues.

India will now have to win the next match in Kolkata, starting on Sunday, failing which they would surrender the number one Test team's tag to the South Africans.

Tendulkar's 46th Test century, his fourth against the South Africans and first at home against the Proteas, was the lone significant knock in the entire Indian innings.

For South Africa, Dale Steyn returned a match-haul of 10 for 108.

Meanwhile, Wriddhiman Saha got the axe while the trio of S Sreesanth, Dinesh Karthik and Suresh Raina were named in the 15-member Indian squad for the second cricket Test against South Africa starting on Sunday in Kolkata.

Pace duo of Sudeep Tyagi and Abhimanyu Mithun, who were part of the 15-member squad for the first Test but could not make it to the playing XI, were also axed.