IND vs SA: 3rd Test – Umesh, Shami run riot as South Africa perish on Day 3
Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami bagged five wickets between them to leave South Africa reeling on Day 3 of the third Test at Ranchi. The Proteas were all-out for 162 in the first innings and Virat Kohli straightaway asked them to follow on. At stumps, they were 132/8 and clinical India found themselves edging closer to a 3-0 clean sweep.
Check the full scorecard here.
Faf fluffs, Hamza impresses
What a terrible series the South African captain has had! Faf du Plessis would’ve liked this Proteas side to show some fighting spirit but his own form has been a far cry from it. He was the first one to fall on Day 3 as Umesh cleaned him up with an unplayable ripper. At 16/3, the visitors needed a solid partnership to resurrect their batting.
That’s when Zubayr Hamza (62), playing only his second Test, walked in with positive intent and an attacking mindset. He put up a 91-run partnership for the 4th wicket alongside Bavuma and negated the early threat of the Indian pacers. Both batsmen saw off a crucial passage of play. In the 28th over, Ravindra Jadeja had Hamza trapped for an LBW. Turned down by the umpire, India immediately went for the review but ended up losing it. The next ball, Jadeja knocked him over with a straighter one.
Debutant Nadeem gets into the act
There couldn’t have been a better time and place for Shahbaz Nadeem to make his Test debut. In only his 3rd over of the match, the wily left-arm spinner got Bavuma (32) to dance down and go for the big shot. Instead, Bavuma ended up being stumped by a quick Wriddhiman Saha behind the stumps. Jadeja then returned to clean up Heinrich Klaasen (6) just before lunch on Day 3.
The post-lunch session began with Shami getting rid of Dane Piedt (4) with a ball that kept very low. Ravichandran Ashwin, who hasn’t been among the wickets, finally got a run-out off his over. Nadeem’s brilliant direct hit meant that Kagiso Rabada had to walk back for a duck. Yadav and Nadeem together wrapped up the South African tail and the Indian captain signalled the follow-on being enforced.
Shami, Umesh combine forces
Once again, the Indian pace duo of Shami and Umesh was at the helm of affairs as South Africa began their second innings trailing by 335 runs. A good length ball from Umesh went straight past Quinton de Kock (5), whose off-stump went cartwheeling, just like his promotion to the top of the order. Shami brought his second-innings game to the fore, sending the half-centurion from the first innings packing for a duck. He followed it up with the wickets of du Plessis (4) and Bavuma (0).
From there on, South Africa just crumbled like a pack of cards. Dean Elgar kept resisting at one end, hitting an odd boundary every now and then. But he was running out of partners at the other and in the 10th over, a short ball from Umesh hit him straight in the grill. Tea was taken early and Elgar eventually returned to the dressing room retired hurt.
His concussion replacement, Theunis de Bruyn, came out all guns blazing to support the tail. As has been the case all throughout the series, South Africa’s lower-middle order put up a couple more fighting partnerships. With just two wickets away from their first-ever clean sweep of South Africa, there’s little anyone can do to change it.
