South Africa up against it

The 3rd match was really low scoring as 215 was the highest score out of 4 innings and not even a single player reached to half century.

“When I started to play Test cricket, I used to make a lot of errors”.

The pair, who came together in the first hour before lunch, held on till the second hour after the break by defending stoutly against the spinning ball before Mishra broke the stand by dismissing Amla with a classical leg-break to have the rival skipper caught by a leaping home team captain Virat Kohli at short gully. He added three more to that tally and averages 26.90.

Duminy, who hit two sixes off Jadeja, was ninth out when he was trapped leg-before by leg-spinner Amit Mishra, who was required to bowl just three overs in the entire innings.

The third morning was a much better session for South Africa given the cluster of wickets that has been the norm in all the previous sessions.

169 Wickets by Ashwin – the most by a spinner in his first 31 Tests beating Grimmett’s tally of 164. Not just in terms of taking more wickets, but also in terms of keeping things quiet and building pressure.

The Indian bowlers made merry on the crumbling pitch with Mishra (3-40) and Ashwin (3-50) picking up crucial wickets.

“When I first came to India in 2008 and then in 2010 I was facing (spinners) Anil Kumble and Harbhajan (Singh)”. Fall of wickets: 1-17, 2-29. While Amla might not trust Tahir, the leggie’s five-wicket haul in the second innings should at least lift him ahead of part-time bowlers, when it comes to who gets the ball after Harmer. Muttiah Muralitharan took 13 for 171 in Galle in 2000.

That handed India a first-innings lead of 136 which was enhanced further as they progressed to 97 for two before suffering a collapse of their own. Both batsmen scored 39 runs each.

South Africa fell to their lowest Test score since returning to cricket as India took control of a fast-moving game at Nagpur. Overall, there are only eight such instances.

It was for only the second time in five years and 16 Test matches against India that de Villiers had failed to score. The last series was won by them in Sri Lanka. India’s bowling average is also the fifth-best for a team in a series with at least two Tests since 1950. Total: (2 wickets; 14 overs) 32.

At stumps at the VCA Ground, Jamtha, South Africa were struggling at 32 for two with opener Dean Elgar (10) and captain Hashim Amla (3) battling it out at the crease after the dismissals of Stiaan van Zyl (5) and night watchman Imran Tahir (8).