India overcame gritty resistance from South Africa’s batsmen to win the fourth and final Test by a massive 337 runs in New Delhi on Monday and seal the series 3-0.
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Chasing a mammoth target of 481 runs, the visitors were bowled out for 143.
Photo: India’s Amit Mishra (3rd L) celebrates along with his captain Virat Kohli (R) after taking the wicket of South Africa’s Faf du Plessis (L) during the third day of their third test cricket match in Nagpur, India, November 27, 2015.
“It would be easy for our batters or for us to say “let’s just go out and have some fun, get some runs under our belt with the guys in catching positions”.
De Villiers was the seventh man out when a delivery from Ashwin popped up to hit his gloves for Ravindra Jadeja to accept the catch at leg-slip and trigger wild celebrations.
Yadav has also been rewarded for his figures of two for 32 and three for nine as he has vaulted 13 places to achieve a career-best 32nd position.
Amla also hailed India for batting brilliantly and admitted that they certainly deserved the series victory.
The task of playing against the world’s best team appeared a daunting one, not least after Steven Finn and Mark Wood were ruled out with injury, weakening the pace attack ahead of a series in which England can expect to play on pitches made to suit South Africa’s own formidable pace attack. Despite the presence of contemporary cricket’s most destructive batsman in de Villiers and one of the most fluent scorers in Amla, the first 10 overs of their partnership did not yield a single run and things did not improve later either. Steyn is due to play his first domestic match in South Africa for six years on Dec 17 in an attempt to prove his fitness for the Boxing day Test in Durban. Right now, it appears the Indian team is on the upswing after having lost the services of so many quality players.
Amla’s almost five-hour stay at the wicket yielded just 25 runs off 244 balls, the slowest scoring rate in Tests by a batsman who has played 200 balls or more.
Resuming on 72-2 on a hazy morning, South Africa employed the same ultra-defensive strategy that marked their batting on Sunday.
His twin centuries were all the more impressive when you consider that Rahane’s average at home before this series was 7.83, with a top score of 15.
Kohli has now followed up the Test series victory in Sri Lanka by beating the No 1 ranked side.
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The off-spinner picked up 31 wickets in the 4-match collection – his profession-greatest in Tests – beating the 29 wickets he had taken towards Australia in Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2012/13.
