‘It was a proper team win’

"Having collapses every now and then is not a good thing and we need to analyse and correct that moving forward."

South Africa captain Dean Elgar admits he had to show some tough love to his players, which he believes was behind their turnaround in fortunes as they completed a seven-wicket victory over India at Newlands on Friday to claim the series 2-1.

The home side were well beaten by 113 runs in the first Test in Pretoria, but bounced back, against expectations with their young side, to win in both Johannesburg and Cape Town against the number one ranked team in the world.

"We have a young, talented group," Elgar told reporters. "The experience isn't there, but we are gaining it and getting better every day.

"It was unreal to see how a group that doesn't have the 'names' could gel together and play as one. This is a proper unit. It was a proper team win."

Elgar admits he did not pull any punches after the loss in Pretoria and says there were some tough conversations within the group.

"Ultimately if you want to operate at a high-performance level you need to have tough, hard chats. If guys don't like it, that is up for them to deal with," he said.

"I am a bit of an old school mentality with a new school twist, but I laid down some proper challenges to some senior players to stand up and respond. It was brilliant to see the guys take the message on board.

"If you want to be world number one in the future, you have to compete and beat the best."

Meanwhile, India captain Virat Kohli said the team's batting line-up "must be looked into" for Tests away from home as he pinned the blame on their inability to cope in the unfamiliar conditions.

"One of the challenges we have faced touring abroad is to make sure we capitalise on the momentum when it is on our side. When we do that we have won tests, but when we haven't it has cost us the match," Kohli told reporters.

"It (the reason for the series defeat) is batting, we can't pinpoint any other aspect of our game as a team. The batting has to be looked into, there is no running away from that.

"Having collapses every now and then is not a good thing and we need to analyse and correct that moving forward."

Kohli said the fact that his side were expected to win speaks volumes for their recent improvement on the road, but that will make this loss all the more disappointing as they still seek a first series victory in South Africa.

"We know how far we have come as a team. The fact that we came to South Africa and people expect us to win is testimony to what we have done in the past," he said.

"But that does not guarantee you results, you still have to come out and play hard cricket, which we failed to do this time round.

"I am not going to stand here and say, 'oh, but we won in Australia and we won in England', we have to turn up to every series and try and win that one and we still haven't done that in South Africa."