The visitors will start the third day at 2-32, chasing a further 278 runs for victory in a match where 32 wickets have fallen over two days on the dusty, deteriorating pitch at the VCA stadium.
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Leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who was surprisingly kept out of the attack till the 25th over as India moved to 82-2, picked up five wickets for 38 runs to restrict the Indian innings.
Ashwin’s offspin took 7-66 in the second innings, and 12-98 in the match, to once again lead the charge against a batting lineup that folded for a meagre 79 in the first innings.
Amla, who had a great record in earlier visits to the country, made the joint highest score of their second innings, 39, along with another out-of-form batsman Faf du Plessis. “We have sealed the series and we are happy about it”, Kohli was point blank in his response.
Later, India could have sent back Amla, who had notched 253 at this venue in 2010 when South Africa emerged winners by an innings, as well as du Plessis too as both were given “lives” by the fielders.
Resuming the innings post-lunch at 105/4, South Africa scored 46 more runs in 31 overs, giving away two wickets during the second session of the day. Credit to them, they have not lost for nine years, but I will give credit to our boys to have put an equal amount of pressure on them in the course of three Tests matches and winning the series.
Yeah, very disappointing. Fortunately, throughout my career, we’ve been travelling away and managing to play very good cricket.
The pitch, however, played a major part in the Test match as it began to wear significantly on day one and negated the impact of the fast bowlers to a large extent. The home side had won in Mohali before the Bengaluru tie was washed out by incessant rain. Mishra got us right back into the game with those two wickets and it was always uphill for them from there on.
“It’s a challenging wicket definitely”, he told reporters after the 124-run triumph against the world’s top-ranked Test side also secured his first home series win as captain.
Ravichandra Ashwin was adjudged the Man-of-the-match.
“I think the Indian spinners have landed the ball more consistently than our spinners, and asked questions for a longer period of time”, South Africa coach Russell Domingo said.
It was for only the second time in five years and 16 Test matches against India that de Villiers had failed to score.
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Tahir’s fourth wicket came in weird circumstances as Wriddhimman Saha was caught by Amla attempting to sweep after the ball ricocheted off Dane Vilas’ boot.
