That's it for Day 3! India stands two wickets away from a 3-0 sweep of the three-match Test series. A total of 16 wickets fell today at Ranchi while there was a concussion substitution for South Africa and keeper substitution for India. South Africa trails by 203 runs. Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav were brilliant with the new ball in the second innings as the visitor never looked like fighting back.
Virat Kohli has a word with umpire Richard Illingworth and the play can be extended by half an hour given the light is good.
SA EIGHT DOWN!
Rabada goes for a sweep shot in Ashwin's bowling but gets a top-edge which lands safely in Ravindra Jadeja's hands. The on-field umpires discuss the possibility of extending the play.
BOWLED!
Jadeja bowls a good-length delivery as Dane Piedt swings wildy. However, he misses it completely as the ball knocks down his leg-stump. Fifteenth wicket of the day.
SIX!
De Bruyn gets down to the task quickly. He starts with two boundaries and then goes after Shahbaz Nadeem. He plays a lofted shot over the bowler's head which goes all the way!
Nadeem gets a run-out!
George Linde nudges towards the leg-side and hesitates for a moment before taking off. Shabaz Nadeem runs in from fine leg, picks up the ball and hits the stumps with Linde well short of the crease.
Now a replacement for India!
Wriddhiman Saha seems to have hurt his left little finger while keeping the wickets in R. Ashwin's bowling. He is replaced by substitute Rishabh Pant as the keeper.
We have update from Ayan Acharya on Dean Elgar's replacement:
Theunis de Bruyn will be SA's concussion substitute after it was confirmed that Dean Elgar will not bat again.
First six of the innings!
South Africa gradually carefully crosses the 50-run mark as Dane Piedt takes the aerial route! He comes forward to hit Jadeja over the bowler's top. George Linde, the second South African batsman in this innings to reach double digits, hits a boundary over mid-wicket.
Umesh gets his second, SA five down!
Umesh Yadav is brought back and he strikes with his first ball. He traps Heinrich Klaasen upfront with a short-pitch ball angling down the leg-stump. South Africa on the ropes.
Elgar has been hit!
A nasty bouncer from Umesh Yadav hits Dean Elgar on the helmet. He gets on the ground as the Indian players walk up to check on him.
Shami on fire!
Temba Bavuma, one of South Africa's better performers in the 1st innings is back in the hut for a duck. Shami bowls an absolute ripper on the off-stump which Bavuma cant help but edge and an easy catch for Saha.
Shami gets Du Plessis again!
Bullseye! Shami pitches the ball full which pitches just outside off and hits Du Plessis on the pads. Nigel Long doesn't take long to lift his finger. South Africa in free fall!
Shami joins the party!
PEACH! Mohammed Shami removes Zubayr Hamza, the top-scorer in the first innings, for a duck. Another ball zipping inside from just outside off. Hamza looks to nudge it down towards midwicket but the bounce gets him. Top of off, it is!
Umesh on a roll!
And India continues its surge: onwards and upwards. Short and straight has been Umesh's mantra for the day. De Kock tries meeting it with a straight bat but the line beats him, courtesy a mild drift. A deviation off his pads finds the woodwork. What a delivery!
Nortje out!
And that does it for the Proteas, as the side folds for 162, with Nadeem trapping Nortje in front. South Africa trails by 335 runs.
The follow-on has been enforced by Kohli and Co.
Kohli's Umesh move pays
Edged and taken! Linde, after putting up a lengthy fight, has to take the long walk back to the pavilion now. Full and outside off yet again and Rohit Sharma at second slip doesn't make any mistake.
Drinks break after Umesh is brought back into the attack
With the spinners not having much say in the game of late, Kohli has handed over the responsibility to Umesh Yadav, who has straightaway started teasing Linde, restricting himself to the region just outside off.
Ayan updates: Shami is targetting Nortje with the short ball. He has hit him thrice already: twice on the shoulder and on the elbow once. 150 up for South Africa, but at this point it's more India waiting to wrap up the tail than the tail hoping to stave off the follow-on. The side needs another 145 to avoid follow-on (297).
Rabada out for a duck
Total annihilation! Kagiso Rabada run out for a duck. There is a misfield at Umesh Yadav's end, but he is quick to collect himself to send in a throw at the non-striker's end, after Linde signals for a run. The umpire doesn't think twice before raising the finger.
Piedt goes!
This was coming. Mohammed Shami had bowled three balls in this over prior to this one and Piedt was clearly troubled each time by the pace, length and line. Worse, the ball kept dangerously low after hitting the deck. The batsman doesn't go for a review as Shami goes up instantly after the ball crashes onto the pads. The umpire obliges.
This was Shami's 50th wicket in home Tests. He is the eighth Indian pacer to achieve this feat.
Lunch has been taken.
Our correspondent Ayan pings, "South Africa heading towards an all too familiar result. Only thing standing between them and a 3-0 whitewash today could be the weather."
Agree? Let us know in the comments below!
Jadeja all the way!
Jadeja pitches this one up, between off and middle, a line and length Klaasen was lured in to play. He looks to go for the odd shot towards midwicket, but the drift on the delivery spells his doom. The furniture has been rattled again.
Nadeem gets his first Test victim
Shahbaz Nadeem gets Bavuma, his first Test victim, stumped. That'd be two in form-batsmen departing in no time. A flighted delivery from the Jharkhand left-arm spinner sees Bavuma advance down the wicket. What the batsman didn't expect was the turn. Taken by surprise, Bavuma turns to make it back, but Saha wouldn't let go of these opportunities, would he?
Jadeja with the breakthrough
Hamza is the man who would have to walk. Jadeja is elated and so is Kohli! The right-handed batsman resorts to the back foot yet again but this delivery skids through beating him to crash onto the leg stump.
Ayan updates from Ranchi: It's still quite overcast here. Light and the weather could become an issue as the day stretches on. Hamza and Bavuma have played their shots and rotated the strike, quite well. For the first time since the Elgar-De Kock stand in Vizag, South Africa has had some kind of stability in the batting. The fear of the timidity resurfacing under pressure has been allayed for the time being.
Zubayr Hamza on with the rescue act
Hamza has looked solid with Bavuma willing to take the odd risk. The partnership reaches 60+ now with them bringing up a 52-run stand in just 10 overs; the highest fourth-wicket stand for SA this series.
Hamza has been solid on the front foot and has more or less looked to play straight.
Time for some spin: R Ashwin into the attack
This has been a terrific spell from Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami. With two pacers bowling in tandem, hitting the right lengths, scoring runs has been tough for the South Africans. The visitor needs to show some fight to avoid a collapse.
Umesh Yadav strikes early!
India has sent the South African skipper back in the very first over of the day. A good length delivery, simple and straight, from the pacer does the trick. There was hardly any movement, but du Plessis fails to read the line completely as the ball clips the top of the off stump.
8:38 AM IST: The update from the centre is that it is getting brighter in Ranchi and the covers are coming off. Well, I have my morning cup of piping hot coffee ready beside me. You should get yours too. The action will resume soon, in less than an hour from now.
Ayan texts: " Ranchi has woken up to a very overcast, and chilly morning. The entire ground is covered as of now. We could be in for a delayed start."
Weather update from our correspondent: " Still around two and a half hours to start of play but there's a slight drizzle starting to make an appearance. Plus the overnight rains haven't helped."
Missed out on the Day 2 action? Worry not! Here is our correspondent Ayan Acharya with Sunday's report:
He waited. And he kept the crowd waiting. He bid his time, playing out a maiden over right after lunch. The boisterous Ranchi crowd began to grow even more restless when the drama dropped to a simmer, but the cheers were ultimately answered when Rohit Sharma (212, 255b, 28x4, 6x6) executed a full-blooded pull off Lungi Ngidi to bring up his maiden Test double hundred.
The Rohit conundrum didn't tax the South Africans for the entire day, but the two hours of mayhem he unleashed might have done enough to snuff out the visitor's last remaining hopes. South Africa finished the second day's play, staring down the barrel on 9/2, still 488 runs behind India's first-innings score.
When Rohit's carnage of 28 fours and six sixes ended off Kagiso Rabada’s bowling, every South African player walked up to shake hands with him. But Rohit's innings was only one half of the pounding they took on Sunday. The other half was Ajinkya Rahane's (115, 192b, 17x4, 1x6) sublime 11th Test century.
You could see the relief on Rahane's face as he pushed Anrich Nortje wide of cover point to bring up his first Test hundred at home since 2016. Last month on the tour of the Caribbean, he broke a sequence of 17 Tests without a century, making 81 and 102 in the first Test in Antigua. Looking back, it was perhaps a sign of things to come from a batsman who has been labelled as the "most sorted guy" by skipper Virat Kohli.
Not only did Rohit and Rahane dismantle South Africa's bowling in the early half of the first session, they also hit them the hardest where it would hurt them the most— ruthlessly attacking their young fast bowlers.
If Rohit laid into Lungi Ngidi by collecting three boundaries in one over, Rahane unleashed several delectable cuts, cover drives and pull strokes as the two put on a mammoth 267-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
Rahane was finally dismissed when George Linde had him caught behind for his maiden Test dismissal. The ball pitched on a length and turned away outside off; Rahane, unable to negotiate the bounce, feathered the edge behind. It was, however, a momentary respite for the Proteas from the torrent of runs being clattered past them. Rohit's ability to switch into higher gears seamlessly, was once again on display as he waltzed towards his double hundred riding on a phase of sustained big hitting.
Following Rohit's dismissal, Ravindra Jadeja and Wriddhiman Saha joined hands to keep the scoreboard ticking as India continued to score at a rate of nearly four runs an over in the post-lunch session. The duo took the total past 400 with a 47-run sixth-wicket stand before Saha was clean bowled by Linde.
The left-arm spinner then snapped up his third wicket in Jadeja, who fell after a well-struck fifty. Umesh Yadav, meanwhile, entertained with a 10-ball cameo, clobbering five sixes — all off Linde — before holing out to Heinrich Klaasen. India eventually declared on 497/9.
India's fast bowlers breathed fire in deteriorating light and overcast conditions. Mohammad Shami, in an hostile opening over, had Elgar caught behind for a second-ball duck while Umesh Yadav removed de Kock for four.
But with the floodlights out in full force and the sky darkening, Kohli was forced to bowl the spinners. Shahbaz Nadeem had bowled two consecutive maidens on his home ground when bad light brought an end to the day’s play.
Where to watch?
You can watch the match on Star Sports 1 and Star Sports 1 HD with English commentary and tune in to Star Sports 3 and Star Sports 3 HD for Hindi commentary. You can also watch the live streaming on Hotstar .
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