Ashwin bags 12 wickets to help India pip South Africa

R Ashwin - who claimed a five-for in the first innings - continued his stellar display with the ball in the second and picked up seven wickets to help India maul South Africa by 124 runs in the Third Test that ended in Nagpur on Thursday.

South Africa began day three already two-wickets down and Ashwin refused to let Dean Elgar and captain Hashim Amla settle. He trapped Elgar in front of the stump, for just 18, in the 18th over.

South Africa's talisman AB de Villiers entered the fray and hoped to make amends for his failure in the first innings. He tried his best to put Ashwin off his length by jumping out of the crease as often as he could, but he failed to do so. In the end, perhaps what was happening off the pitch became so dominant that he didn't watch the ball closely enough out of the hand, and fell lbw to a carrom ball

The double-blow pegged the tourists on the back foot and they struggled at 58 for four. But they refused to give in without a fight. Amla and Faf du Plesis dropped anchor and began to rebuild their innings.

The duo added 72 runs for the fifth wicket, which was South Africa's second-longest partnership of the series. But as they began to look comfortable, Amit Mishra got the better of Amla, who edged a flighted delivery to Virat Kohli at gully.

An over later, de Plessis tried to pull a Mishra delivery that stayed low and rattled the stumps. South Africa struggled at 135 for six at that stage.

Ashwin was reintroduced into the attack in the post-tea session and he added to South Africa's misery and dismissed their last four batsmen with ease. He ended with figures of seven for 66 in the second innings.

"The wicket slowed up a bit today, there was help in the wicket but the way Faf and Amla played, we had to put some good balls," Ashwin said.

"One team was trying to fight, one team was trying to win. batsmen go out to make 100s, I go out to get five-fors. I thought Amit bowled a wonderful spell after lunch, we prized out a couple of wickets in that post-lunch session. Anybody who goes out there and trusts his defence can play well."