After enforcing the follow-on which many though would not happen, Virat and his boys won the series, their 11th win on home soil and lead the Test Team Championship with another 40 points under their belt.
Agencies
Pune, October 14:
It all worked according to the plan, and the Virat Kohli’s captaincy proved it all. The way he went about in the second Test against the visiting South African team in every aspect of the game, saw the Indian team register an emphatic innings and 137 runs win in the second Test of tseries with a 2-0.
After enforcing the follow-on which many though would not happen, Virat and his boys won the series, their 11th win on home soil and lead the Test Team Championship with another 40 points under their belt. The teams head tpo Ranchi for the final Test.
Soon after the tea break it was all over for the South Africa as Umesh Yadav had Keshav Maharaj lbw and and Ravindra Jadeja had Rabada caught by Rohit Sharma to bring the end of the second Test as they were all out for 189 in the 68th over.
The way Faf du Plessis and his boys went about was clear that their side inexperienced to tackle playing under pressure. And du Plessis right said after the match that the lack of experience was their main set back.
“ The new faces in the dressing room is the reason for us to succumb and it would take us more matches for them to get back into winning ways.”
But he went on to praise the Indian side which is full of world class players and the leader leads the side with example.
“It was a brilliant knock by Virat and that put us under pressure.” He is a great player and the his boys have played more Test matches than my boys,” said the Proteas skipper.
It was ruthless attack by the Indian bowlers and the best part being their consistency which was not among our bowlers,” said du Plessis.
And to run salt on their wounds poor selection of shots made things more easy for the Indians. In the first instance, Theunis de Bruyn who did look good went in to pull a Ravichandran Ashwin and was caught my Umesh Yadav at the deep mid wicket.
And Quinton de Kock went to sweep Ravindra Jadeja and missed the ball for the middle stump to be rattled. It was unfortunate for Aiden Markram who was adjudged leg before for a out going ball.
The first innings heroes Vernon Philander and Keshav Maharaj threatened to deny India the win. The last time Proteas were enforced follow-on was in the year 2008 against England at Lords, however, that match ended in a draw.
Wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Prasanta Saha was in prefect nick. The catch he took to dismiss De Bruyn was a beauty. Umesh had strayed down leg and the batsman tried to glance him fine. Wriddhiman Saha behind the stumps flew to his left and plucked that ball out of thin air.
Earlier coach Ravi Shastri along with skipper Virat Kohli were involved in a long discussion while the South African players were warming up. Led by Kohli the Indian side was involved in slip fielding and the seamers Mohmmad Sami and Ishant Sharma were bowling, which is a clean indication that South Africa will have to follow-on.
