Agencies
Nagpur, Nov 27: It was on the cards, but what was not predictable was that South Africa would take the match to the last session of the day. They did that and even though the visitors lost the third Test at the Jamtha Stadium here Friday by a whopping margin of 124 runs with two days and a little bit remaining, they would certainly not hang their heads in shame. They fought it out with grittiness, with determination on a pitch that was at its unpredictable worst. India thus built up an unassailable 2-0 lead in the four-Test series with one game still to go.
Ravichandran Ashwin (7/66) continued his brilliant show on a wicket tailor-made for his skills. Amit Mishra (3/51) also came to the party for the first time in the series and picked up the crucial wickets of Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis, both of whom seemed to have set up a night-long camp at the Jamtha. In the process, Ashwin achieved his career best figures in Test cricket and also picked up 10 or more wickets (match figures of 12 for 98) in a game for the fourth time.
Nineteen years ago, on a deathbed of a pitch in the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, a pint-sized opener whom many still fondly call as ‘Sunny’ (Sunil Gavaskar) showed how to tackle spinners. He played the likes of Iqbal Qasim (left-arm orthodox) and Tauseef Ahmed (right-arm off-spin) in a manner that had the pundits gaping. Both quickish spinners, Tauseef even managed to get balls from the good length spot, head high. But nothing bothered ‘Sunny bhai’ that day as in his last Test innings he fell short of a 100 by only four runs and India lost the game to Pakistan.
It seemed as if South African skipper Hashim Amla (39, 167b, 2×4) and Faf du Plessis (39, 152b, 3×4, 1×6) had taken a leaf out of Gavaskar’s books. They battled it out playing with soft hands and doing the correct shot selection. For 42 overs, the Indian spinners toiled away, as the two stuck it out the middle. They simply put a price on their wickets and for once during the entire Test series, India skipper Virat Kohli looked a bit puzzled.
The resistance was unexpected as South Africa had lost Dean Elgar and AB de Villiers early on in the day, the latter to a beauty of a ‘carrom’ ball from Ashwin. He expected it to turn in, it did just the opposite slightly and De Villiers was caught plumb in front of his middle stump. Wicket, Test and Series to India in a canter – that’s what everyone thought. Not Amla and Du Plessis though.
There were many oohs and aahs as near edges, bat-pads and mistimed drives flew tantalisingly close to the fielders evading their desperate clutches. But nothing affected the two; they just soldiered on and on and never looked like getting out. Ultimately the pitch did the job.
The leggie from Mishra that finally broke through Amla’s defence jumped from the good length spot and took the handle of his bat to lob into the waiting hands of Kohli at gully. Eleven balls later, Du Plessis went for a pull against Mishra only to find the ball crawling through below his bat and crashing into the stumps. It was all over bar the shouting.
Duminy defended and attacked but then played for the spin when it was straight from Ashwin to be caught plumb in front. Bruce Oxenford couldn’t have asked for an easier decision. The rest capitulated as Ashwin bowled a deadly spell with the second new ball.
The away series loss after nine years for Amla and his men would probably be a very hard pill to swallow. They would certainly wait for India with green tops when the current hosts turn visitors at the end of 2016. After all ‘Revenge is a dish that tastes best when served cold’.
Till then another turner awaits them at the Feroz Shah Kotla in approximately a week’s time. Best of luck.
