5 Occasions when Ravi Ashwin spun a web around the batsmen in Tests

2. 7/66 vs South Africa, 2015

Ravi Ashwin once again proved that he is the monarch in favourable home conditions. The off-spinner had already picked up a fifer in the first innings to help India skittle the visitors out for just 79 in the first essay, and in the second innings too, he ran through their fragile batting line up.

The pair of Dean Elgar and Stainn Van Zyl tried to play the ‘waiting’ game with Ashwin, but the latter’s patience ran out. He tried to drive Ashwin through the off side, but could not get the elevation that he hoped for. He holed out to Rohit Sharma at short cover to give Ashwin his first wicket of the second innings. The next scalp for Ashwin was Elgar. To a ball that went on with the arm, Elgar misread it completely, and was struck dead in front of the stumps.

But then, the wicket that Ashwin would savor the most is that of the legendary AB De Villiers. It is not easy to flummox a batsman of the quality of De Villiers, but Ashwin did exactly that. He bowled the carrom ball to perfection, De Villiers did not pick it, and was out leg before wicket. The South African legend looked stunned. It was an absolute peach of a delivery.

Duminy then shouldered arms to a delivery that came in with the arm and was another LBW victim of the Indian spinner. Ashwin then scalped Dane Vilas to pick up his second fifer of the match. The ball pitched on middle stump, bounced a little more than the batsman expected, took a ‘feather’ off his glove and Saha completed the formalities.

He ran through the tail, picking up the wickets of Rabada and Morne Morkel to pick up 7 wickets in the innings. His superlative performances with the ball in hand allowed India to beat South Africa by 124 runs.