The hosts India completed the whitewash in the three-match home Test series against South Africa after claiming a massive victory in the third and final Test of this series at Ranchi. India won this match by an innings and 202 runs – their record Test victory (by an innings) against South Africa.
South Africa started the fourth day on their overnight score of 132/8 in the following on innings. The day lasted for just two overs long as South Africa only added one run before losing back-to-back wickets. Debutant Shahbaz Nadeem bagged both the wickets of the day.
During the toss of this match, South African captain Faf du Plessis brought Temba Bavuma as the proxy captain. However, it didn’t change his luck as the Indian captain Virat Kohli once again won the toss and decided to bat first.
The first session of the game was very hard for the hosts as they once went down to 39/3. However, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane‘s brilliant 267 runs partnership for the fourth wicket became the game-changing moment for India.
Ajinkya Rahane (115) scored his first home Test century since October 2016. Meanwhile, the opener Rohit Sharma (212) slammed his maiden double century in Test career.
Later, Ravindra Jadeja also played a patient knock of 51 runs off 119 balls. Tailender Umesh Yadav created a record after finishing with the batting strike-rate of 310.00. He stunned everyone by scoring 31 runs off just 10 balls, with the help of five sixes. These performances helped India to score 497/9 decl.
Indian bowlers dominated later part in this game
Then Indian bowlers dominated in back-to-back innings. At first, the visitors were bundled out for just 162 runs. Zubayr Hamza (62 runs), Temba Bavuma (32 runs) and the debutant George Linde (37 runs) were the only batsmen in that innings to register the double-digit scores.
Among the Indian bowlers, the pacer Umesh Yadav dominated with the bowling figures of 9-1-40-3.
Leading by 335 runs, Indian captain Virat Kohli decided to enforce the visitors for follow-on. This time South Africa were bundled out on just 133 runs. Theunis de Bruyn (30 runs), the concussion substitute of the opener Dean Elgar, was the highest runs scorer in that innings.
In that innings, another Indian pacer Mohammed Shami destroyed the top-order visiting batsmen as he finished with the bowling figures of 10-6-10-3.
Earlier, India won the first two Tests in the big margins. They won the first Test at Visakhapatnam by 203 runs. Meanwhile, India won by an innings and 137 runs in the second Test at Pune.