After long vigil, the deluge

NEW DELHI: Monday presented the rare sight of Indian cricket fans rooting for an opposition player after a big win for the home side. Here were Virat Kohli's men, having just wrested a 337-run win and catapulted themselves to No. 2 in the Test ranks, lining up for the presentation ceremony. Just yards away, behind the fencing a good number of young fans were screaming.“AB, AB,” they chanted, peering right past the Indian players to a rather careworn AB de Villiers walking up to take his place. It had been that sort of a soul-stirring, prejudice-dissolving Test match for those who could stay the course through South Africa's outstanding effort to stave off the inevitable. Even the Indians -whose resolve with the ball matched SA's obduracy with the bat -didn't seem to mind.
In a series which had lacked serious contest and the sort of extended thrust and parry Test matches are made of, the Kotla offered a timely reminder of the format's penchant for surprises. This game was effectively over by the second day, but as India extended their lead, Hashim Amla got into his stonewalling act and the game crawled into the last day, it was de Villiers' time to play Sisyphus. He watched his dead-bat efforts roll back with the fall of every wicket, and started the uphill task of resurrecting the innings all over again.
The Indians, meanwhile, were the spider in Robert Bruce's cave, spinning a web around AB and Co countless times till they finally managed to open the floodgates minutes after tea.

Ashwin bagged another five-wicket haul and a pacy, reverse-swinging Umesh Yadav posed a deadly menace on a Kotla pitch finally showing signs of deterioration. AB finished with a monumental 297-ball 43, batting through painful blows on the arm from Yadav and making a draw seem a distinct possibility. Ravindra Jadeja had got through the defences of Hashim Amla (a 244-ball 25) but the Indians seemed to be running out of answers against AB, needing five more wickets when they took tea.
As it turned out, they needed just 27 more balls. Umesh opened the post-tea proceedings and with his fifth ball, dislodged Dane Vilas with an off-cutter. Ashwin came around the wicket and got an off-break to rear up and kiss AB's glove on its way to leg slip. Game over.

De Villiers wasn't the only castle India had to breach on a difficult day. SA's dead-bat approach, so successful on the fourth day, got a handsome 97-ball contribution from Faf du Plessis too, but in the end there was just too much time left. De Villiers played with soft hands and was a picture of poise, rarely getting rattled even when the edges came and India's close-in fielders got into the act.
While Umesh and Ashwin did the damage, Jadeja applied the slow choke, going through 16 maiden overs on the trot in a series that marked his coming of age as a potent weapon in Virat Kohli's arsenal.