India took all of 12 balls to pick the remaining two wickets and wrap up an emphatic 3-0 Test series win over South Africa on the fourth morning in Ranchi. India’s victory by an innings and 202 runs was their biggest over South Africa, who endured two innings defeats in a series for the first time since 1935-36.
Shahbaz Nadeem, the debutant left-arm spinner from Jharkhand, picked the two wickets off consecutive deliveries in the second over of the day — the first bowled as relentlessly by Mohammed Shami. Theunis de Bruyn, who was batting as a concussion substitute for Dean Elgar, was the first to go, perishing to an under-edge that was stunningly caught by Wriddhiman Saha behind the stumps.
Nadeem joins India squad for Ranchi Test
Lungi Ngidi was out next ball but in a rather unfortunate fashion, smashing the ball straight into Anrich Nortje’s wrist at the non-striker’s end and Nadeem holding onto the rebound. South Africa were bowled out for 133, with de Bruyn’s score of 30 ending up as the top individual score.
India’s victory in Ranchi was emphatic in terms of how quickly they got there. The evening sessions on the first two days were near washouts, meaning India achieved the victory in little over seven sessions.
Markram ruled out of Ranchi Test with fractured wrist
And Rohit Sharma, who scored a whirlwind 212, was at the forefront of India’s charge. The 32-year-old was named the Player of the Match and Player of the Series. Opening for the first time in Test cricket, Rohit scored 529 runs runs in the series which included twin hundreds in Visakhapatnam and a double hundred in Ranchi.
India now have 240 points from five Tests in the World Test Championship. The rest of the teams have a combined 238 points from 19 Tests among them.
Brief Scores: India 497/9 dec (Rohit Sharma 212, Ajinkya Rahane 115; George Linde 4-133) beat South Africa 162 (Zubayr Hamza 62; Umesh Yadav 3-40) & 133 (Theunis de Bruyn 30; Mohammed Shami 3-10) by an innings and 202 runs.
