NEW DELHI : India finally broke past South Africa’s dogged defence to take home the series 3-0 . Thanks to the brilliance of Ravichandran Ashwin (5/61) and Ravindra Jadeja (2/26) who fully exploited a Day 5 Feroz Shah Kotla wicket on Monday as India beat an ultra-defensive South Africa in the fourth Test in Delhi by a whopping 337 runs.
South Africa were well on course to save the test match at tea with the score at 136/5 . But Man of the Series Ravichandran Ashwin struck immediately after the tea to get the prized scalp of AB De Villiers . Ashwin got the better of the De Villiers with a ball that bounced and turned viciously from good length. It took the edge of De Villiers’ gloves and landed at Jadeja’s hands at leg-slip.
It was a huge blow for South Africa’s monumental effort to save the test . De Villiers denied the Indians for 297 balls and batted through with pain only to be undone by the wicket that suddenly came to life in the final session of the match. The Proteas, who had won the ODI and T20 series, thus ended their 72-day tour with a miserable series loss in the tests .
Pacer Umesh Yadav (3 for 9 runs) came to the party by picking a flurry of wickets in the final session . He bowled Dave Vilas, the last of the recognized Proteas batsmen for 13 and then castled Kyle Abbott with a fuller ball . The Proteas lost five wickets in a space of seven runs and plummeted to defeat.
With this series win, India have now climbed two spots to be No. 2 in the ICC Test rankings.
Earlier in the day Proteas batsman chased a massive 481 runs for an improbable victory . South Africa started the fifth day on 72 for two wickets. Left-arm spinner Jadeja earned the breakthrough in the fifth over of the day after the hosts had taken the new ball, spinning one past Amla’s tentative bat to hit the top of the off-stump . But the visitors kept blocking everything to be 94-3 at lunch on the final day with De Villiers batting on 26* from 203 balls . He was hit on the thumb by an Umesh Yadav delivery but batted through pain after getting medical attention.
Faf du Plessis was batting on two at the other end, having taken 53 balls — seven more than skipper Amla — to get off the mark and blocking everything hurled at him.
Amla departed after nearly five hours of resolute defending, scoring 25 painstaking runs from 244 balls in what was the slowest ever Test innings of 200 or more balls. The 27 runs he added with de Villiers in 253 balls was also the slowest Test partnership of 175 balls or more.
The match turned India’s way with Jadeja and Ashwin trapping Du Plessis (10) and JP Duminy (0) leg-before in the post-lunch session.
Brief scores : India 334 (Rahane 127, Jadeja 56, Abbott 5-40, Piedt 4-117) and 267 for 5 dec (Rahane 100*, Kohli 88, Morkel 3-51) beat South Africa 121 (Jadeja 5-30) and 143 (de Villiers 43, Ashwin 5-61, Umesh 3-9)