Hosts India overcame South Africa’s dogged resistance in the final session to beat the visitors by 337 runs in the final Test at the Ferozeshah Kotla stadium on Monday and complete a 3-0 win in the four-match series.
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The top-ranked tourists, who have already lost the four Test series 2-0, were bowled out for 121 in their first innings.
With Faf du Plessis joining De Villiers, the team looked to give some moments of antics but Indian bowlers showed great patience and temperament to get match in their favour. He took 46 balls to open his account.
As expected, the Indians dominated the batting and bowling charts, with Ravichandran Ashwin the chief destroyer, taking 31 wickets at an average of 11.12, while Ajinkya Rahane walked away the top batsman with a total of 266 and a telling average of 53.20.
De Villiers’ marathon knock, just short of six hours, had raised hopes of pulling South Africa to a face-saving draw. He is now third on the list of batsmen consuming most number of balls before opening their account.
Jadeja provided the big breakthrough in the morning when he bowled South Africa skipper Hashim Amla for 25 in the morning, ending his nearly three-hour effort blocking everything. Broad produced his feat in 2013 and Grant in the year 2000, New Zealand being the opponents on both occasions.
The 27 runs he added with de Villiers in 253 balls was also the slowest test partnership of 175 balls or more. The elegant right-hander has not been at his best in this series.
The Kotla pitch has become slow and has lost most of its bounce which is affording the visitors more time to read the deliveries and play their shots.
Kohli used eight bowlers, including himself, in an attempt to dislodge the Proteas batsmen.
Paceman Umesh Yadav chipped in with three wickets as South Africa were bowled out for 143 soon after tea, after being set a massive target of 481.
India were lifted by two wickets in quick succession as Jadeja trapped Du Plessis in front before JP Duminy (0) was lbw on the back foot to Ashwin.
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Dane Vilas was a bit unlucky when he was slightly late in bringing his bat down to an off-cutter from Yadav that moved sharply in from outside the off-stump.
