Bad decisions while batting led to defeat, says Amla

South African Test skipper Hashim Amla on Saturday admitted that his side had made some extremely poor decisions while batting that led to their 108-run defeat against India in the first Test of the four-match series.

Lavishing praise on India, Amla said that they bowled really well and posted a challenging target.

"I agree that we could have applied ourselves a bit better. There were certain decisions that we made while we were batting that were not the right decisions.

Credit to India they bowled well. I think 218 was a challenging target and 150 or 160 would have a really good kind of a game to set up," Amla told media here.

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The 32-year-old, however, said that his side made a strong fight back with the ball in both of India's innings.

"Throughout this Test match, even though it was a short match, we managed to hold our own right until the last innings. The way we bowled and the way we kind of applied ourselves in the field was very good," the right-hand batsman said.

Amla contributed 43 runs in the first innings while he got out for a duck in the second innings.

Earlier, Chasing 218 on a difficult track, the visitors failed to counter the Indian spinners, as both Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin bundled them out for 109 in their second innings. Stiaan van Zyl was the lone batsman to provide some resistance by scoring 36.

Jadeja , who was adjudged 'Man of the Match' , bagged five wickets in South Africa's second innings and three wickets in their first innings.

Ashwin also claimed eight wickets overall, including three in the second innings, while Amit Mishra provided able support by dismissing a dangerous AB de Villiers for the second time in the match.

With this win, India have taken a 1-0 lead in the four-match series and will next take on South Africa in the second Test at Bangalore from November 14.