South Africa 3rd Test: Ashwin, Amit Mishra spin hosts to series

On Thursday, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin finished with five for 32 and Jadeja took four for 33 on a dusty surface at the VCA stadium to bowl South Africa out in 33.1 overs, giving India a first-innings lead of 136 runs.

In Nagpur, South Africa hit a new low as India bowled them out for 79 runs in the first inning and 185 in the second essay.

Ashwin totally outplayed the Proteas as he bagged his second five-fer of the match and seven wickets in total in the second innings, claiming 12 wickets in the game. India had won the first Test at Mohali while the second Test in Bengaluru was washed out due to heavy rain.

The loss also ended South Africas enviable nine-year away record without a series defeat.

“These small contributions and team winning are more important rather than having an average of 50 and above and bowlers not being able to take wickets”. “Especially knowing the fact that South Africa have won the T20 and ODI series here, they are a tough side to beat, but the guys have shown character”.

At lunch, skipper Hashim Amla (28) and Faf du Plessis (23) were at the crease as the Proteas need another 205 runs to win the match with six wickets and eight sessions to go.

In an exclusive chat with NDTV, Gavaskar said Ashwin was the “world’s best spinner” and the way he “out-thought” AB de Villiers on Friday made the Nagpur Test a connoisseurs’ delight.

“There were two teams out there, one was trying to fight and the other was trying to win – I feel that was the difference between the two teams”.

The ball jumped off the pitch on a full length, and caught the edge of the bat to loop to Indian captain Virat Kohli at gully.

“We played some good cricket in Mohali, here and one day in Bangalore”.

These two dismissals have reduced whatever little hopes the visitors had of reaching the far-away target and keep the series alive even on a pitch that still aided spin but seemed to have lost some venom of the first two days.

Amla admitted it was a “difficult” wicket to bat on, but said the South Africans had tried their best to adjust to the conditions. And secondly, I don’t mind compromising on (batsmen’s) averages as long as we are winning Test matches.

Hashim Amla said, “Obviously very disappointing”.

After a steady partnership between du Plesis and Amla, Amit Mishra provided the breakthrough and took the two most crucial wickets.