After winning the first two Tests in Newlands and Cape Town, the hosts have won the series and have eventually completed the revenge of their 2015 tour when India had blanked them by 3-0 in the four-match rubber.
Indian skipper Virat Kohli won the toss in the 3rd Test and elected to bat first in spite of a greener turf at Wanderers. Ajinkya Rahane, who was not included in the playing XI in the last two tests, returned to the side along with Bhuvneshwar Kumar. As it was the pitch most convenient to the pacers, India decided to go with no spinners.
India’s batsmen had failed to deliver in the first two Tests, as the team had gone on to lose both the games to concede the series. The batsmen disappointed once again in the first innings of the ongoing third Test in Johannesburg. Except for Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, no other player reached to double-digit score.
Kohli and Pujara scored half-centuries, but the other batsmen failed to get going. After missing the 2nd Test, Bhuvneshwar made a comeback in the 3rd and the final Test and made an immediate impact by getting India back into the game with a brilliant piece of swing bowling on the Day-2.
Bhuvi was exceptional with his swing mantra as the South African batsmen could hardly cope with his in-swingers and out-swingers. He kept missing one after the other. South Africa began the 2nd day’s play on 6/1 with Dean Elgar and Kagiso Rabada starting proceedings. It was Bhuvneswar who removed Elgar with a brilliant outswinger and Parthiv Patel behind the stumps pouched it without a fuss.
However, Amla who joined Rabada had a fine partnership of 64 runs which started frustrating the Indian bowlers. It was Ishant Sharma who gave India the much-needed breakthrough with the wicket of Kagiso Rabada. ABD walks into the middle and was fortunate to survive a close LBW call and would have been heading to the pavilion had Virat Kohli gone for the review.
However, Swing King Bhuvneshwar Kumar didn’t allow de Villiers to make amends. He set him up brilliantly with four out-swingers and then unleashed the big in-swinger, and de Villiers had no answer. It broke his defense comprehensively and disturbed the timbers.
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— Rohit (@rohitpandeyee) January 25, 2018
Indian bowlers are continuing to attack the hosts and bowl them out as soon as possible.
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