South Africa had not lost a series away from home in nine years and although they had a few new faces in the squad, they were still the favourites on paper. And perhaps this was the reason for the score line being 3-0 against South Africa.
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South Africa played with dogged resistance for the first time in the series, scoring 143 in their second innings in 143.1 overs.
Rahane is rated highest amongst Indian batsmen with Virat Kohli next on 14th. With 14 wickets at an average of 21.35 and an economy rate of 3.14, you would think that the leg spinner is an automatic choice for South Africa’s starting XI, but the stats tell only half the story.
This is not the first time they have struggled against quality spin bowling. It was fitting that Ashwin would take the last wicket to give a sense of finality to a lopsided series. But Yadav made all the difference when he bowled Vilas for 13 off the fifth ball of his first over after tea.
Chasing a near-impossible target of 481 for victory, the South African batsmen had chose to block everything that came their way and their commendable resistance lasted for a whopping 143.1 overs.
So I am not going to look deep into it, to maintain the same training and to keep getting better is I am looking forward to. Following consistent failures of Stiaan Van Zyl up the order, 25-year-old Bavuma was handed one of his hardest tests – that of opening the batting with Dean Elgar in Delhi.
Kohli also praised the South Africans for the way they tried to bat out the day, aiming for a draw. “I was pretty surprised by the way they came out and made a decision to start defending from the very first ball”, Kohli told reporters during the post-match conference. From the New Delhi Test alone, in which he picked up seven wickets, Jadeja has gained four places to earn a career-best seventh position.
Dale Steyn was missing the Test and it was time for Morne Morkel to step up and do what his bowling partner did at the same venue in 2010. Piedt would have considered himself unlucky to miss out on first three Tests after an impressive debut previous year where he scalped eight wickets against Zimbabwe.
Fourteen innings across three formats look like a lot of innings to fix an issue, but when you are going through a horrid patch, it’s simply not enough. But with the variations and discipline he possesses, he seems to be one for the future for the Proteas.
The most surprising part in all of this has been that no one has spoken about the poor performance of the batsmen from the top side in world cricket.
The Indians were 260 for five in the second when they declared. The good news is that both Kyle Abbott and Kagiso Rabada showed that they are up for the task.
Rahane has batted well in different conditions, all over the world.
The 27 runs he added with de Villiers in 253 balls was also the slowest test partnership of 175 balls or more.
India has no extra Test matches earlier than the annual April 1 minimize-off date, however third-ranked Australia will host eighth-ranked West Indies in a 3-Test collection from December 10.
The shining light on the batting front was the cricketing freak – that’s a compliment, by the way – AB de Villiers. While the senior batsmen showed some application in the final innings of this series, it was too little too late.
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Yadav was also the only bowler to pose problems for De Villiers.
