Former India captain and batting legend Sunil Gavaskar said that India pacers – Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav kept the things under control from both the ends in the third and final Test against South Africa in Ranchi on Monday and because of that, the visitors were struggling to score freely. Shami finished with figures of 3/10 whereas Umesh Yadav picked up two wickets as India bagged their 8 wickets yesterday. However, the hosts lead 2-0 in the three-match test series already as they won in Vizag and Pune.

Chasing to India’s 497/9 declared, South Africa were bowled out for 162 in the first innings and after Day 3 they were struggling at 132/8 following on. In the first innings, Umesh Yadav bagged three wickets while Shami took a couple as well.

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“Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav both had kept the situation under control with their bowling which meant the batsmen weren’t getting runs easily,” Sunil Gavaskar said on post-match show. “Another thing, between the 5th and 6th wicket they have bowled from a little ahead of good length because from there you can trick the batsmen as they don’t know where to play – forward or backward.”

VVS Laxman said, “This match was happening in Ranchi, were fast bowlers cannot catch speed easily but yet their performance was commendable. The Indian team has a good reserve of bowlers such as Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma that even a team such as England would think what kind of a gameplay to execute in front of the team.”