The hosts India secured the three-match Test series against the visitors South Africa after claiming a record-margin victory against Proteas. On day four of the second Test of this series at Pune, India bundled out the visitors for 189 runs in their following on innings and won the match by an innings and 137 runs.
After more than 11 years, it was the first time when any team enforced the follow-on against South Africa. On the day four morning, Indian captain Virat Kohli took this decision. It was the first time when India enforced South Africa to face follow-on innings in a Test match. Meanwhile, the Proteas side faced the follow-on innings previously during Lord’s Test against England in July 2008.
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Trailing by 326 runs, South Africa started their following on innings on day four morning. On the second ball of the day, Indian pacer Ishant Sharma dismissed the opener Aiden Markram for a duck. He also scored a two-ball duck during South Africa’s first innings in this game.
Once again, most of the top-orders failed to stand strongly. Apart from Dean Elgar (48 runs) and Temba Bavuma (38 runs), all other batsmen till no.7 failed to reach the double-digit score.
Lower-order batsmen Vernon Philander and Keshav Maharaj against fought for South Africa
Like the first innings, once again, Vernon Philander and Keshav Maharaj put a strong partnership at late. While they put the 109 runs partnership for the ninth wicket in earlier innings, this time they provided 56 runs partnership for the eighth wicket. While Philander scored 37 runs, Maharaj lost his wicket after scoring 22 runs.
Among the Indian bowlers, pacer Umesh Yadav (3/22) and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja (3/52) picked up three wickets each in that innings. Also, Ravichandran Ashwin (2/45) got two wickets while Ishant Sharma (1/17) and Mohammed Shami (1/34) claimed one wicket each.
Earlier, in this match, India managed to score 601/5 (decl.) after winning the toss. Captain Virat Kohli scored 254 not out while opener Mayank Agarwal was out after scoring 108 runs. Cheteshwar Pujara (58 runs), Ajinkya Rahane (59 runs) and Ravindra Jadeja (91 runs) also scored 50+ runs in that innings.
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In reply, the visitors scored 275 runs before losing their all wickets in their first innings.
Without any doubt, Indian captain Virat Kohli won the Player of the Match award for his outstanding double-century knock – which was also the record Test knock by an Indian captain.
With this victory, India have taken the 2-0 lead in this series with one to go. It is their 11th successive home Test series victory – a record consecutive home Test series victory.