Virat Kohli's men did not have to wait long on Tuesday, the fourth day of the third and final Test against South Africa, at Ranchi to make history. South Africa, which went into day four with just two wickets in hand, lasted only two overs, being dismisssed for 133 runs, to give India victory by an innings and 202 runs. The win gave India its first-ever 3-0 whitewash against South Africa. South Africa added a solitary run to their overnight score of 132 for 8.
Theunis de Bruyn was the ninth wicket to go, being caught by Wriddhiman Saha off Shahbaz Nadeem for 30. De Bruyn was the top-scorer for South Africa, but failed to add a run to his score. Lungi Ngidi was caught and bowled the very next ball by Nadeem for a duck.
South Africa had made 162 runs in their first innings, trailing India's score of 497 for 9 declared by 335 runs. The poor state of South Africa's batting could be gauged by the fact that the visitors lost 16 wickets across their first and second innings on day three, with Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav doing most of the damage. Interestingly, the scale of India's dominance is reflected in the fact that the Ranch Test ended early on the fourth day despite dozens of overs being lost on the first two days due to bad light. The win is India's second straight innings victory against South Africa; Kohli's men won the Pune Test by an innings and 137 runs.
The three-match series had begun on a promising note for South Africa's batsmen in the first innings of the first Test at Visakhaptnam, with both Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock making centuries. However, in the five innings since then, South Africa have scored less than 300 and were dismissed for less than 200 four times.
The 3-0 whitewash over South Africa marks the third such clean sweep for Virat Kohli as captain. The previous wins were against New Zealand in India in 2016-17 and Sri Lanka away in 2017.
The South Africa series marked the resounding success of the experiment of using Rohit Sharma as opener. The one-day star, who had struggled in Tests, till this series, hit three centuries against South Africa to amass a total of 529 runs in just four innings. His opening partner, Mayank Agrawal, also had a good series, hitting two centuries and making 340 runs.
This is South Africa's first 3-0 series defeat in nearly 14 years. The last time was in 2005-06 when they lost to Australia at home.
