On a thrilling third day that turned out to be the last of the Mohali Test, India secured a 1-0 lead over South Africa with their spinners picking the batsmen off like plastic ducks at a shooting range. An alarming 18 wickets fell on day three at the PCA Stadium, 16 of them to spin, and none more significant than the nine that India's three-pronged spin quotient accounted for as South Africa, chasing 218, were bowled out for 109.
These telling strikes on a turning pitch, including five to comeback man Ravindra Jadeja, shoved into the background India's own collapse of 8/39 to be bowled to for 201. Virat Kohli has now won three Test matches in a row, including his first at home. This 108-run victory was India's fourth in a row at home inside three days.
Winning the toss had been significant because batting fourth on a wearing surface was not preferable. Kohli would have expected his team to still be batting at tea on Saturday, considering the overnight platform they had, but a collapse to 201 all out had dashed those aspirations. Still, with Jadeja, R Ashwin and Amit Mishra at his disposal, Kohli had reason to believe India could defend 217. That they did, and how.
The tourists sent Vernon Philander to open the innings with Dean Elgar, but the experiment failed spectacularly with Jadeja striking him in line with the stumps first ball. Faf du Plessis averted a pair but could only manage one run before he played down the wrong line and edged Ashwin to slip. Hashim Amla's decision to not offer a shot to Jadeja was fatal, the regulation arm ball going on to hit middle stump. The score read 10/3 and Indian hopes soared.
There would be no reprise of AB de Villiers' first-innings counter-punch, as he also played for turn and was bowled by Mishra's fifth delivery. Just when a partnership was forming, Kohli called on Varun Aaron for a shot of pace and the move brought immediate results, as a bouncer drew a leading edge from Elgar. At 45/5, South Africa were haemorrhaging.
There was no coming back from that, with Jadeja (5/21) and Ashwin (3/39) mopping up the rest.
Though only two visiting teams have ever chased over 200 in the fourth innings of a Test match in India, South Africa would have been confident about chasing 218 after taking eight Indian wickets for just 39 runs. Saturday morning promised more toil for an attack missing Dale Steyn, and when Cheteshwar Pujara and Kohli batted out the first hour cautiously without loss while taking India's lead towards 200 - Pujara scored 13 off 51 deliveries during this time, Kohli 18 off 44 - it seemed South Africa were in for a long haul.
Then Kohli, on 29, deviated from the script and feathered a catch to Dane Vilas off Stiaan van Zyl's unassuming medium-pace to end an alliance of 66. The pivotal moment, however, came when Imran Tahir, who had to wait 70 minutes to get a ball, drew the edge from Pujara's bat on 77 with his first ball for Amla to hold a low catch at slip. Suddenly India had two new batsmen at the crease, with the score effectively 181/4. That became 181/5 when Temba Bavuma, the substitute fielder, held his second diving catch of the match at short leg when Ajinkya Rahane prodded half-heartedly at the offspinner Simon Harmer and got a big inside edge. Three wickets for three runs in the span of 17 deliveries.
Now India had two batsmen yet to open their accounts, and two hungry spinners to contend with. Jadeja used his feet and rolled his wrists to punch Harmer past mid-on for four, but then played back to a quicker one that didn't turn and was hit in line for 8. Mishra swept Harmer to backward square leg, his second failure of the match after being promoted ahead of Ashwin who has two Test hundreds. Ashwin himself did nothing, becoming Tahir's third wicket as lunch was taken with South Africa bursting at the seams with excitement.
Upon resumption, Harmer bowled Umesh Yadav in the second over of the afternoon to collect his fourth wicket, a career-best in Tests, and Tahir brought about the end of India's sorry second innings with the wicket of Wriddhiman Saha for 20. This meant that the last eight wickets had been snatched for the addition of 39 runs, but the match was far from over.
Brief scores: India 201 & 200 (Cheteshwar Pujara 77, Simon Harmer 4/61, Imran Tahir 4/48) beat South Africa 184 & 109 (Ravindra Jadeja 5/21) by 108 runs
