Ravinchandran Ashwin took yet another fifer to wear down a resolute South African defence on the fifth day of the final Test to lead India to a 3-0 series victory in the Freedom series at the Kotla, Delhi. Ajinkya Rahane laid the foundation with a century each in both innings before the bowlers finished the job for the hosts, who now climb up to second spot in ICC's Test rankings.

In what turned out to be an absorbing day of Test cricket, which must please the purists after the furore over the pitches in the series so far, South African bowlers struck regular blows to peg India to a creditable total of 231/7 at the end of the first day of the fourth Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi on Thursday.

The Feroz Shah Kotla pitch will be in focus as India and South Africa prepare for the fourth and final Test match of the Freedom series, which is scheduled to start on Thursday in Delhi. The home team defeated the Proteas in the third Test by 124 runs to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, and ended the visitors' nine-year undefeated streak in away Test series.

South Africa lost the wickets of Van Zyl and Imran Tahir, after India set them a target of 310 on the second day of the third Test at Nagpur. The Proteas, who were bundled out for 79 in the first innings, restricted India to a paltry 173 in the second innings at Jamtha.

South Africa ended the first day trailing India by 204 runs after Ashwin and Jadeja picked up wickets to reduce the visitors to 11/2. Earlier, Simon Harmer and Morne Morkel combined to take seven wickets as India were bowled out for 215 in the first innings of the third Test at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur on Wednesday.

The second Test match between India and South Africa was officially called off on Wednesday morning with rain playing spoilsport for the last four days.

Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan put up an unbroken 80-run opening stand and ended the day on the front foot after South Africa were bowled out for 214, in their first innings of the second Test at Bangalore on Saturday. AB de Villiers (85) fought a lone battle on his 100th test, as Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja took four wickets each to dismantle the Proteas' batting line-up.

After defeating the South Africans by 108 runs in the first test at Mohali, Team India is hopeful of another spin- friendly track at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.