India continued their domination against South Africa as they won the second Pune Test by a big margin of an innings and 137 runs, thereby registering their consecutive 11th home series win, which is the most for any team. The hosts’ decided to enforce the follow on a penultimate day of the Test match and skittled out the visitors at 189.
In fact, this was the first time in Test match history that India enforced a follow-on against South Africa. The Indian bowlers were right on the money in the opening session as they took four wickets to put the tourists’ on the backfoot.
Read More: Watch: Ajinkya Rahane Pulls Off A Stunner To Dismiss Temba Bavuma
India was too good for South Africa.
Aiden Markram was hit on the pads by Ishant Sharma but the South African opener decided not to go for the review. The ball was missing the leg-stumps and it was a lucky dismissal for India.
Theunis de Bruyn also didn’t have the rub of the green on his side as he edged an innocuous ball down the leg-side. Wriddhiman Saha was quick to move to his left and took a one-handed blinder.
Faf du Plessis decided to play all the ball with the dead bat and he once again felt prey to Ravichandran Ashwin’s off-spin. Dean Elgar who was South Africa’s highest scorer in the second innings with 48 runs played a rash shot at the stroke of lunch.
India took three wickets for 98 runs in the Lunch-Tea session and the South African tail once frustrated the hosts. Keshav Maharaj and Vernon Philander added 56 runs for the eighth wicket partnership. However, the Indian bowlers made sure that they didn’t let the match go into the final day.
Read More: Watch: Wriddhiman Saha Takes A Thrilling Catch Of Faf Du Plessis
Virat Kohli was awarded the Man of the match for scoring his seventh double century. Kohli had scored a fine knock of 254 runs to help India post 601 runs.
Here is how Twitter reacted to India’s win:
SA have found reliable top order batsmen for the third Test in Philander and Maharaj
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) October 13, 2019
Wrapped up. South Africa have been outclassed on two good decks at home. A team performance. Almost everyone contributed and it's the hallmark of the dominance of the side at home.
— Nikhil ? (@CricCrazyNIKS) October 13, 2019
https://twitter.com/TrollVKHaters/status/1182915109942784001?s=20
Look, it's Aiden Markram… #Pair#INDvSA #INDvsSA pic.twitter.com/GLboEMoC2z
— CricBlog ✍ (@cric_blog) October 13, 2019
Can we fly out the current top 6 tonight to their respective franchises for the #4DaySeries starting tomorrow?
Replace the lot of them for the 3rd Test?
Open the batting with Muthusamy and Philander? 🙂#INDvsSA
— Tim Dale Lace (@Tim32_cricket) October 13, 2019
#INDvsSA #SAHA
Rishabh pant right now ??? pic.twitter.com/qboPkKjfzB— or sunao (@BasbadiyaYar) October 13, 2019
Maybe it’s the Kolpak, maybe it’s the forced colour-quota but the Proteas have slipped badly. The current team is a shoddy embarrassment to their predecessors #IndvsSA
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) October 13, 2019
Over the years, I have had enormous admiration for South Africa as a cricketing nation. And as India's toughest opponent, whether home or way. These performances will take some time to come to terms with.
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 13, 2019
On pitches you can’t complain about, India have smashed South Africa in successive Tests. Without Jasprit Bumrah. Think about that for a moment. It could have been bigger. This is home dominance of a new level. #INDvSA
— Jamie Alter ? ?? (@alter_jamie) October 13, 2019