A yet another low scoring test match played at Nagpur between India and South Africa ends up in favor of Indian team, ensuring a victorious lead of 2 – 0 in the 4 matches test series. Credit of this lead can be written off to Indian spinners for their outstanding bowling, where South African team chasing a mammoth total wrapped off 124 runs short.
The third test match which was played at Nagpur, where Indian skipper after winning toss decided to Bat first, but soon batsmen realized it as a tough call and managed to put on board 215 runs in first inning. Defending the lead Indian spinners seized South African batting order on a low total of 79 runs, where Ravichandran Ashwin bagged 5 wickets for his team in first inning.
By the time India came down for its second innings play, South African squad was trailing by 136 runs. The Indian batsmen just had to push that trail to a par score, in which they had succeeded and before the end of 2nd days play kept a huge target of 309 runs for the guest team. African team playing in last session of 2nd day lost 2 wickets on a score of just 40 runs.
Playing on third day South African team could hardly sustain the turning and bouncing pitch losing wickets on regular successions. However, 5th wicket partnership between skipper Hasim Amla (39) and Faf Du Plessis (39), which added 72 runs in second innings total gave a feeling that they will turn the match on their side. Unfortunately, this duo failed to take away match from Kohli’s brigade and surrendered to Amit Mishra in his consecutive over.
A player which has taken out maximum advantage from the pitch ideal for spinners was Ravichandran Ashwin, who after a 5 wickets haul in first inning casted beautiful spells for bagging 7 wickets in second inning and was given Man of the Match. The bowler with his individual best figures (7/66) also leads the list highest wicket takers in 2015, with 55 wickets taken this year at an average of 17.81.
The pitch had absolutely nothing for batsmen, which is quite easy to make out from the first day of test match, which on bails 12 wickets was taken.
Hasim Amla speaking on the prize distribution ceremony said “Obviously very disappointing. It was a hard game. Whether we win or lose, we have to fight honorably and well done to the guys. We tried to dig deep as long as we can. The pitch was a difficult factor, it was turning and bouncing whether the new ball or the old one. Three day matches are difficult.”
On the other hand Indian skipper delighted with the series win said “Very pleasing indeed, especially because they won the ODI and T20 series. Some good cricket in Mohali, Bangalore and here. Feels very good, we played some good cricket. Ashwin is a world-class spinner; he stepped up in a big way for us, maybe the best in the world at the moment.”
The fourth and final test will be played at Firozshah Kotla Ground in Delhi from December 3rd, where South African team would play to finish the tour in a better way, while Indian player will look for a 3 – 0 swap in the series.
