Visakhapatnam, Oct 6: Mohammed Shami and Ravindra Jadeja put up a stellar show with the ball as India defeated South Africa by 203 runs on day five of the first Test at ACA-VDCA Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Sunday (October 6).
Shami (35 for 5) grabbed a brilliant fifer while Jadeja (87 for 4) also looked impressive to help the hosts restrict the tourists for 191 in the second innings. Chasing an improbable target of 395, South Africa didn't get a positive start as their top-order, as well as the middle-order, perished cheaply on Day 5.
At one stage South Africa were 70/8 and it seemed their innings would be wrapped up within 100. However, debutant Senuran Muthusamy (49*) and Dane Piedt (56) showed tremendous resistance and dug deep. They kept batting and forged a partnership of 91 runs for the ninth wicket and delayed the inevitable until Shami broke the frustrating partnership and clean bowled Piedt. Later, he removed Kagiso Rabada for 18 to give India a fancy win.
R Ashwin becomes joint-fastest to 350 Test wickets, equals Muttiah Muralitharan's record
Earlier in the day, R Ashwin gave India the first breakthrough of the day when he cleaned up overnight batsman Theunis de Bruyn and opened the floodgates for the tourists. Ashwin also completed 350 wickets and equalled former Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan's record.
Rohit Sharma (176 & 127) was awarded the man of the match for his impeccable batting performance in both the innings. Mayank Agarwal also starred for the hosts in the first innings as he played a knock of 215 runs while opening the innings for India alongside Rohit.
Here's how the match panned out on Day 5: