South Africa‘s 9-year undefeated streak in away Test series was brought to a thudding close at a square turner in Nagpur with India taking the 4-match series 2-0. South Africa will look to salvage some pride by seeking out a consolatory win in the final Test at Feroz Shah Kotla, but that is a distinct possibility as the Delhi pitch has also traditionally favoured spin bowling which has proven South Africa’s Achilles heel in the series. If they are to win they will have to work out a way to effectively play on a rank turner. SCORECARD: India vs South Africa 2015, 4th Test at Feroz Shah Kotla
South Africa have been thoroughly undone by the rank turners so far. They owe it to the rain for the series scoreline could have read 3-0 by now. The match at Bengaluru saw no play for 4 days which gave the visitors a draw. However, they were terribly exposed in their incompetence to deal with spinners on dustbowls at Mohali and Nagpur. The story is not likely to be different at Kotla for the fourth and concluding Test.
The most recent game at Feroz Shah Kotla was between India and Australia from the 2013 series. Off the 34 wickets to fall in that game, which the home team won by 6 wickets, 29 were taken by spinners! Jadeja and Ashwin shared 14 wickets between them. They will be looking for another statistical boost at the prospect of bowling there again.
In the match, second most recent game at Kotla, which was between India and West Indies in 2011 the ratio of spin bowler wickets to fast bowler wickets sees a dip. Off the 35 wickets that fell in the game, 21 were scalped by spinners, which is still a convincing majority. Yet, it is further encouraging for India that Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha shared 16 wickets between them with Ashwin scalping a total of 9 in the game.
So, it is evident that in modern times, spinners have ruled the roost at Kotla. Moreover, the predominant theme of this series has been square turners and it is unlikely Kotla will be an exception. Everything indicates that spinners are going to make merry at Kotla yet again. Will South Africa be better prepared to counter the twirlers’ assault this time about? It is difficult to imagine a drastic turnaround. Indians will be eyeing the 3-0 scoreline and it is going to be a daunting task for the visitors to evade it.
(Rishad D’Souza, a reporter with CricketCountry, gave up hopes of playing Test cricket after a poor gully-cricket career. He now reports on the sport. You can follow @RDcric on Twitter)
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