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KANPUR (India), April 13: Harbhajan Singh and Virender Sehwag triggered South Africa’s collapse on an awkward pitch to help India square the series with an eight-wicket win in the third and final Test here on Sunday.
Off-spinner Harbhajan bagged 4-44 and part-time spinner Sehwag 3-12 as South Africa were shot out for 121 in their second innings on a turning track of unpredictable bounce after conceding a 60-run lead on the third day.
India raced to the 62-run target off just 13.1 overs, with Sehwag smashing two successive sixes off spinner Paul Harris in a 12-ball 22. Saurav Ganguly (13 not out) and Rahul Dravid (18 not out) then completed the win.
South Africa never found the going easy on a pitch where the ball sometimes kept low as well as jumped, creating doubts in the batsmen’s minds. Only skipper Graeme Smith (35) and Ashwell Prince (22 not out) offered resistance.
It was South Africa’s third-lowest total against India in Tests and the second successive match of the series to be finished inside three days. As many as 13 wickets fell on the third day.
Harbhajan bowled superbly in the entire series. The part-timers also bowled well in the match,” said stand-in India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Mark Boucher was caught behind off a nasty delivery from Sharma that rose from just short of a good length, with wicket-keeper Dhoni holding a simple catch.
Dhoni sprang a surprise in the morning when he opened the attack with Harbhajan and then kept rotating his pacemen and spinners in a bid to keep non-stop pressure on the South African batsmen.
When he pressed Sehwag into the attack in the afternoon, the move paid off instantly as the part-timer got the vital wickets of Smith and Jacques Kallis in three overs.
Scoreboard
SOUTH AFRICA 1st innings 265 (G. Smith 69, H. Amla 51; H. Singh 3-52)
INDIA 1st innings (overnight 288-9):
W. Jaffer lbw b Morkel 15
V. Sehwag lbw b Steyn 8
R. Dravid b De Villiers b Morkel 29
V. Laxman b Morkel 50
S. Ganguly c Amla b Steyn 87
Y. Singh c De Villiers b Harris 32
MS Dhoni st Boucher b Harris 32
H. Singh lbw b Steyn 6
P. Chawla c Smith b Ntini 4
S. Sreesanth c Prince b Harris 29
I. Sharma not out 14
EXTRAS (b8, lb6, nb4, w1) 19
TOTAL 325
FALL OF WKTS: 1-18 (Sehwag), 2-35 (Jaffer), 3-113 (Dravid), 4-123 (Laxman), 5-188 (Y. Singh), 6-248 (Dhoni), 7-268 (H. Singh), 8-279 (Chawla), 9-279 (Ganguly).
BOWLING: Steyn 20-1-71-3 (w1), Ntini 21-7-47-1, Morkel 15-2-63-3 (nb3), Harris 32.4-8-101-3 (nb1), Kallis 9-1-23-0, Amla 2-0-6-0.
SOUTH AFRICA 2nd innings:
N. McKenzie lbw b Sreesanth 14
G. Smith b Sehwag 35
H. Amla c Jaffer b Harbhajan 0
J. Kallis c Jaffer b Sehwag 15
A. Prince not out 22
AB de Villiers c Laxman b Harbhajan 7
M. Boucher c Dhoni b Sharma 5
M. Morkel b Sharma 0
P. Harris c Dravid b Harbhajan 0
D. Steyn b Harbhajan 7
M. Ntini c Ganguly b Sehwag 0
EXTRAS (b12, lb1, nb2, w1) 16
TOTAL 121
FALL OF WKTS: 1-26 (McKenzie), 2-27 (Amla), 3-65 (Kallis), 4-72 (Smith), 5-90 (De Villiers), 6-101 (Boucher), 7-101 (Morkel), 8-102 (Harris), 9-114 (Steyn).
BOWLING: Harbhajan 23-7-44-4, Sharma 10-2-18-2 (w1), Sreesanth 9-4-9-1 (nb2), Chawla 4-0-18-0, Sehwag 8.5-2-12-3, Yuvraj 1-0-7-0.
INDIA 2nd innings:
W. Jaffer lbw b Morkel 10
V. Sehwag c Prince b Harris 22
S. Ganguly not out 13
R. Dravid not out 18
EXTRAS (nb1) 1
TOTAL (for two wickets) 64
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-32 (Sehwag), 2-32 (Jaffer).
BOWLING: Steyn 2-0-15-0, Ntini 1-0-5-0, Harris 5.1-0-36-1, Morkel 5-1-8-1 (nb1)
RESULT: India win by eight wickets to level three-match series 1-1
—AFP
