On This Day In 2019: India Register Record 11th Consecutive Test Series Win At Home

ON THIS DAY IN 2019: It was in 2019 when the Indian Test team, captained by Virat Kohli, was invincible in their own kingdom. Among several histories created in that era, one came on the back of a Test series win against South Africa. Four years back on October 22, India recorded 11 successive series wins at home after crushing the Proteas in Ranchi. It helped Kohli and Co. to shatter a two-time record of Australia to win 10 back-to-back home series.

Apart from the first innings of the opening Test in Visakhapatnam, the tour was never pleasant for the visitors. With the victory, India also registered their first-ever 3-0 whitewash against the SENA country in front of the home crowd.

Rohit Sharma was the chief architect in the third Test where the hosts defeated South Africa by an innings and 202 runs. The Indian opener played a brilliant 212-run knock in the first innings. Powered by Rohit’s first-ever double-hundred in Tests, India reached 497 runs before declaring their innings with one wicket in hand.

Rohit was assisted by Ajinkya Rahane, who showed off pure class during his 192-ball innings. The right-handed batter smashed 17 boundaries and one maximum to contribute 115 runs to the mammoth total.

Besides these two, only Ravindra Jadeja shone with the bat for India. While the southpaw notched a fifty, the other Indian batters looked quite pale. Spinner George Linde spearheaded the South African bowling attack and claimed a four-wicket haul. Kagiso Rabada appeared at his best with the new ball, fetching three scalps.

Every Indian bowler demonstrated their A-game on the Ranchi track. Umesh Yadav picked two wickets, while Mohammad Shami, Shahbaz Nadeem and Ravindra Jadeja got two wickets each to conclude South Africa’s innings at 162 runs. Thanks to the dominant bowling, India enforced the second-consecutive follow-on in the series.

Despite poor weather conditions affecting nearly two sessions, it was almost a four-day game. On Day 5, India took only 12 balls to wrap up South Africa’s second innings. Faf du Plessis’ side was bundled out for 133 runs to suffer one of their biggest defeats in history.

Shami took over the charge during South Africa’s second innings. The Indian pacer ripped through the opposition’s top order to secure a four-wicket haul. Umesh Yadav continued his red-hot to add two more to his list of prey. On the third day, the pacer duo picked 12 out of South Africa’s 20 wickets across both innings. Nadeem also dished out a magical spell, which saw him take two wickets. The other two Indian spinners- Ravichandran Ashwin and Jadeja grabbed one each.

Before winning the Ranchi Test, India beat South Africa by 203 runs in Visakhapatnam and by an innings with 137 runs in Pune in the first two Tests respectively.