India seals whitewash over S Africa by an inning defeat in Ranchi

Ranchi Test: India thrash South Africa by innings and 202 runs, register historic 3-0 clean sweep

Ranchi: India thrashed South Africa by an innings and 202 runs in the third and final Test match to register their historic maiden 3-0 clean sweep over Proteas, here at the JSCA Stadium Complex on Tuesday.

Resuming at the overnight score of 132/8, South Africa's innings lasted just for 11 minutes as India bundled them out for only 133. 

Debutant Shahbaz Nadeem picked up the final two wickets in consecutive balls as India seal an historic victory over South Africa on day four in Ranchi. 

Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav picked up five wickets apiece during the course of the Test match and spinners Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin and debutant Nadeem also contributed to India''s success by picking 3, 1 and 4 wickets respectively.

Earlier, South Africa were all out for 162 in the first innings response to India''s 497/9 declared and skipper Virat Kohli enforced the follow-on for the eighth time in his career. 

Rohit Sharma had scored his maiden double hundred and was well supported by India vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane who scored his first ton in India in three years.

Sharma was also adjudged Man of the Match and Man of the Series as he finished the series with 529 runs at 132.25, the most by any batsman during the tour. 

This was also India's biggest margin of victory in terms of innings vs South Africa in tests and overall, this is India's sixth clean sweep at home in a three-Test series. Men in blue had complete domination over Proteas during the three-match series winning the first Test by 203 runs and the second one by an innings and 137 runs.

Meanwhile, Kohli surpassed Mohammed Azharuddin to become the India captain to lead the team to most number of series whitewashes in Tests (minimum 3 matches). Azharuddin led India to two series whitewashes under his leadership but Kohli bettered his record with a complete rout of South Africa in the Freedom series.

Before this, Virat Kohli's men had whitewashed New Zealand (3-0) in a home series in 2016 and Sri Lanka (3-0) in an away series in 2017.

India had whitewashed England (3-0) in 1993 and Sri Lanka (3-0) in 1994, with Azharuddin at the helm of affairs in two home series. Under MS Dhoni, India managed to whitewash only one opponent that was Australia (4-0) in a home series in 2013.

With this victory, India have now won their last five tests along with consolidating their position at the top of the World Test Championship points table with a maximum of 240 points. 

New Zealand and Sri Lanka with 60 points each are ranked at number 2 and 3 respectively. South Africa, on the other hand, failed to open their World Test Championship account after their first three tests.Brief Scores: India 497/9 decl, South Africa 162 and 133 all-out.(UNI)