New Delhi: Ravichandran Ashwin is in top form at the moment. The Chennai lad has played 32 Test matches.
He has achieved a tremendous feat of five Man of the Series awards, levelling with the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar.
Ashwin finished with a tally of 31 wickets at an average of 11.12 in the South Africa series.
His four five-wicket hauls and 101 vital runs in the lower-order helped in India's victory.
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There may be debates on the quality of pitches in India during the recently concluded South Africa tour but Team India will be satisfied with their performance after a humiliating defeat in the ODI series.
India defeated South Africa yesterday at the Kotla to win the four match series 3-0.
India had already won the series against the Proteas before they began the Delhi Test. Benguluru Test was washed out due to rains.
While he was busy preparing for the Test, his hometown was grappled with deadly floods which displaced many.
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The spirit of a cricketer came to life after watching the spin master score a brilliant 56 in the first innings. He ended the run with a spectacular display with the ball.
South Africa in the second innings came up with a strong resistance to save the Test match. South African batsmen displayed the most epic form of obduracy, maintaining a rate of one run per over throughout the innings.
India needed 4 wickets in the final session of play to win the Kotla Test. Ashwin picked up AB de Villiers and then started the fall of strong block.
That wicket of AB changed the match and turned it in India's favor.
Ashwin plays for Tamil Nadu in domestic cricket. He is the fastest Indian bowler to reach the 50-, 100- and 150-wicket mark in Test cricket.
Ashwin made his first-class debut for Tamil Nadu in December 2006. He came into the limelight in 2010's edition of the Indian Premier League.
Playing for the Chennai Super Kings, he impressed with his economical bowling in the tournamen.
He was the player of the tournament of the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa.
He was also part of the Indian squad that won the 2011 Cricket World Cup.
Later that year, he made his Test debut against West Indies and became the seventh Indian to take a five-wicket haul on Test debut.
He took two five-wicket hauls and scored a century in that series and won the player of the series award.
Ashwin is the only bowler of recent times apart from Sri Lanka's Ajantha Mendis to bowl the carrom ball.
With two centuries and five half-centuries in his Test career so far, Ashwin has earned the reputation of being a bowling all-rounder.
He was a recipient of the Arjuna Award in 2014 and the BCCI's international cricketer of the year for the 2012-13 season.
Hats off Spin Master!
