Off-spinner R. Ashwin bowled South African tail-ender Morne Morkel through the ‘gate’ and gave finality to the third Test match of the Paytm Freedom Series at the VCA stadium in Nagpur on Friday.
Morkel appeared embarrassed as he left the ground with his team shot out for 185 in the fourth innings even as India’s champion off-break bowler completed a dozen wickets in the match to take his tally to a whopping 24 from five innings of the series.
Good temperament
As the wrecker-in-chief had predicted after the second day’s play, the under-prepared wicket allowed leeway for the batsmen with will and skill to spend time in the middle. Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis showed excellent temperament to tackle the threats posed by Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Amit Mishra and pacer Ishant Sharma. For the first time in three days it seemed there were no demons in the pitch.
But once the South African skipper left the crease, after a little over three and half hour show of defiance, his team-mates followed at regular intervals, unable to withstand the pressure situation caused by Ashwin’s terrific spell with the second new ball that was claimed when it was almost due (in the 81st over).
In a sense it was a feeling déjà vu for Ashwin, who has now taken 119 of his 169 Test wickets on Indian soil, to fashion a victory at home with a bagful of wickets. It was his 14th five wicket haul on Friday but all the wickets did not fall to him in a heap after he had dispatched Dean Elgar (confirmed after the match that the umpire had declared him LBW and not snapped up by Cheteshwar Pujara at silly point) and trapped A.B. de Villiers with a delivery that did not turn.
The expected slump did not happen as Virat Kohli may have expected when de Villiers departed at 58. The master batsman’s dismissal was a big breakthrough, after Elgar and Amla resumed at 32 for two. de Villiers gave an impression that he has not been able to apply mind over matter and take decisive action against deliveries which he did not know whether would turn right, left or come straight at him.
The match may have ended much earlier had Wriddhiman Saha and Ajinkya Rahane been a little more smart when du Plessis, beaten by pace, edged Sharma (79 for four) between the keeper and slip and Amla (83 for four) failed to keep down Mishra.
These offerings could be put down as half chances and thereupon the fifth wicket pair thrived to forge a partnership. Ashwin and Jadeja became less effective with the old ball and even though initially hemmed in by a slip, gully, silly point and leg trap, du Plessis and Amla played confidently to disperse the men around their bat.
Mishra strikes
The partnership turned out to be the longest in terms of time and overs bowled (173 minutes and 281 balls) and once Mishra made the breach, closing the 70th over with wicket of Amla, it was a question of how quickly the innings would fold up.
Jadeja took the new ball, but it was Ashwin who struck removing Jean-Paul Duminy with a delivery to which the left hander decided against offering his bat in defence, or attack, and when the ball hit his front foot, it was in line with the off stump.
Soon Ashwin completed a 4.5-1-16-4 spell to finish with a match analysis of 12 for 98 that gave Kohli a victory in his first home series as captain. Mishra deserves much credit as he scalped Amla and du Plessis in quick succession.
With the Test match ending with almost an hour to spare on the third day, questions have been asked if it’s right to play matches on designer pitches that makes life miserable for the batsmen. Kohli said it’s better to play on resulted-oriented pitches and Amla said he has never played on such tracks.
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