Centurion: Leaving India reeling at 35-3 at the end of Day 4 of the 2nd Test, South Africa bundled out the visitors for 151 as early as the morning session on the final Day in Pretoria on Wednesday.
With that, Faf du Plessis men bagged the Freedom Test series with a 2-0 lead also putting an end to India’s record nine consecutive series win in a row.
India’s hopes of revival were dented on early after they lost Cheteshwar Pujara courtesy of a run-out, who was dismissed in the same fashion as the first innings. Wicket-keeper batsman Parthiv Patel soon followed his partner’s footsteps in the pavilion.
Lungi Ngidi got his first breakthrough of the day by getting rid of Hardik Pandya after the batsman over-improvised a cut shot over Quinton de Kock’s head, eventually handing him a catch.
Ravichandran’s Ashwin was unable to put up a gritty show once again after Ngidi dismissed him early on.
Virat Kohli and co were given hopes, as Rohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami went on to resurrect India’s innings with a promising partnership but that was brought to end by Kagiso Rabada, who baffled Rohit with a short ball.
Just a few overs to go for the lunch break, Ngidi wrapped up the innings with soft dismissals of Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah. (Deccan Chronicle)
South Africa win the 2nd Test by 135 runs and clinch the #FreedomSeries 2-0 #SAvIND pic.twitter.com/YwbXE4c5mh
— BCCI (@BCCI) January 17, 2018
SA's fierce commitment expressed brilliantly by veterans (e.g. ABD) & rookies (e.g. Ngidi) alike. Batsmen particularly pulled up their socks
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) January 17, 2018
Bowling stood up. Batting-fielding didn’t. Opportunity lost. #SAvIND
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) January 17, 2018
