India beat South Arica by 108 runs on day three of the first Test in Mohali, on Saturday.
Set 218 to win, the South African batsmen were no match for the Indian spinners as the visitors were bowled out for 109.
Ravindra Jadeja was the chief destroyer for India with 5/21 in the fourth innings of the match.
Top-scoring for South Africa was Stiaan van Zyl who made a dogged 36 from 82 balls.
The South African chase started off in disastrous fashion as the Proteas were reduced to 10/3 inside four overs. Interestingly, the visitors decided to send in lower order batsman Vernon Philander (1) to open the batting with Dean Elgar (16). The experiment failed as he fell lbw to Jadeja.
More concerning were the wickets of Faf du Plessis (1) and Hashim Amla for a duck. Amla, in particular, fell in bizarre circumstances as the Proteas captain decided to leave a straight ball from Jadeja which did not turn and took out the middle stump.
AB de Villiers again looked to play an aggressive innings, but he was bowled for 16 by Amit Mishra for 16 as South Africa were left battling at 32/4 after 9.5 overs.
Elgar was next to fall, caught Kohli bowled Varun Aaron as South Africa lost their fifth with the score on 45 in a session which completely belonged to India.
The hosts were bowled out shortly after the start of the second session of play with spinners Imran Tahir (4/48) and Simon Harmer (4/61) making the most of turning conditions.
Before lunch, India did not lose a wicket in the first hour as captain Kohli (29) and Cheteshwar Pujara (77) had put on 66 for the third wicket to help the host to 161/2.
But like in the first innings for the Proteas, it was a part-time bowler who sparked the comeback for the visitors. On this occasion medium-pacer Van Zyl found the edge of Kohli’s bat which was taken by wicketkeeper Dane Vilas.
Pujara fell seven balls later as Tahir removed the set-batsman, caught low down at slip by Amla to reduce India to 164/4.
Ajinkya Rahane fell for just 2, this time Harmer removing the Indian batsman as South Africa struck again. – African News Agency (ANA)
