Agencies
New Delhi, Dec 4: Indian spinners silenced critics picking up seven wickets on a ‘normal’ pitch as the hosts dismissed South Africa for 121 in 49.3 overs on the second day of the final Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla here Friday with Ravindra Jadeja (5/30) picking up his fourth five-wicket haul. India, earlier riding on Ajinkya Rahane’s (127, 215b, 11×4, 4×6) first home ton and Ravichandran Ashwin’s 56 (140b, 6×4, 1×6) scored 334 runs in their first essay.
In spite of achieving a huge lead of 213 runs, the hosts will not impose follow on when the game resumes Saturday. India would bat to take the match beyond South Africa’s grasp and at the same time create more wear and tear of the pitch, so that when the visitors bat the second time around, troubles will compound for them.
Both Ashwin and Jadeja have unjustly been ‘blamed’ for achieving success on rank turners at Mohali, Bangalore and Nagpur. But this time around they showed that they are a force to reckon with even on ‘batable’ pitches. Both bowled a very probing line and length on a pitch where some of their deliveries turned albeit slowly. It was the South African batsmen’s inability to demonstrate a proper technique against the spinning ball and wrong choice of shots that led to their downfall.
Temba Bavuma (22, 55b, 3×4) and skipper Hashim Amla tried to cut balls from Jadeja that were too full and perished. Faf du Plessis tried a paddle sweep on the second ball he faced and could just lob the ball behind keeper Wriddhiman Saha and the dolly was easily snapped up by Rahane running backwards from slip. Jadeja then had figures of 5-1-17-3 and suddenly the pitch which seemed to have nothing, had demons in it for the South African batters.
In between, Umesh Yadav had produced two beauties to also get among wickets with dismissal of Dean Elgar and JP Duminy. The latter fell to a peach of a delivery with the ball seaming off the pitch ever so slightly to beat the bat and hit the top of off-stump. It was Yadav’s 50th Test wicket and he richly deserved the accolades for bowling consistently at 140kmph-plus speeds in all his spells. Suddenly at 65 for five it looked all over bar the shouting for the visitors.
AB de Villiers (42, 78b, 5×4) batted the way only he does. He was ninth out going for quick runs as wickets continued to tumble at the other end. He tried to hit Jadeja out of the ground and saw Ishant Sharma picking up an excellently-judged catch at the long-on boundary.
Earlier India resuming at 231 for seven took their score past the 325-run mark courtesy a 98-run stand for the eighth wicket between Rahane and Ashwin. Both batted very circumspectly in the first hour and the first boundary of the day came in the ninth over when Ashwin cracked Morne Morkel to the point fence.
Rahane then duly brought up his hundred with a cracking straight drive of Kyle Abbott (5/40), a shot that had the Mumbai gharana written all over it – less backlift, lovely follow through and the best result. He celebrated his first hundred on home soil with two sixes of Dane Pidet, the first clearing the cow corner ropes and the second sailing over long-off. He finally fell, slicing Imran Tahir’s googly to the waiting hands of De Villiers at extra-cover.
But that did not bother Ashwin who continued to accumulate runs in the company of Yadav. He brought up his sixth Test 50 with a towering six over long-on off Tahir and looked good for many more. However, in the second over after lunch he hit Abbott down AB’s throat which signalled the end of his fighting knock.
