South Africa's blocking marathon surprised us: Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli admitted South Africa's defensive tactics made it easier for him to rotate his spinners after India won the fourth and final Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla by 337 runs to take the series 3-0.

India broke through South Africa's stubborn resistance to win the fourth and final Test at the Feroz Shah Kotla by 337 runs. The victory achieved in deteriorating light meant the hosts took the series 3-0 and climbed to No. 2 in the ICC Test rankings. But home skipper Virat Kohli was left mystified by the Proteas' defensive tactics on the best pitch of the series.(Day 5, As it happend)
Set 481 to win around lunch on the fourth day, the Proteas decided to dig deep and set on a blocking marathon, making it virtually impossible for India's bowlers to create any breakthroughs. Ravichandran Ashwin snared openers Dean Elgar and Bavuma on Sunday afternoon but Hashim Amla's 244-ball blockathon and a 297-ball vigil by AB de Villiers had at one point in time dampened India's chances of securing a 3-0 scoreline.
"We were surprised by South Africa's approach. Honestly, we did not expect them to be so defensive. It was a new thing for us as no team has blocked so much against us before. It was a proud thing for us too, because they are the No. 1 side in the world and resorted to blocking everything from our bowlers," Kohli said after India wrapped up a 337-run win.

Amla and de Villiers, two of the most accomplished Test batsmen in the world, partnered for 243 balls and scored only 27 runs between them. After the South African skipper fell to Ravindra Jadeja, de Villiers joined forces with Faf du Plessis and the pair added only 35 runs off 211 balls. Kohli said South Africa's tactics were hard to understand as the pitch was really not that difficult to bat on.
The Indian skipper though did not mind South Africa's overtly defensive approach as that allowed him to use his part-timers and give Jadeja and R Ashwin some much-needed break.
However, Kohli credited South Africa's batsmen and said his bowlers had to work much harder because the likes of Amla and de Villiers decided to put their heads down and seemed determined to bat on for a draw. "All the wins (this series) were special, but this one was more so because we had to work harder. The South African batsmen put their heads down and played for a draw - that was always going to be hard work. I just asked the bowlers to put their hands up and that's what happened after tea."
South Africa had resumed the last session of the series at 136/5 and a draw was pretty much on the cards with de Villiers looking solid and the light fading. But Ashwin and Umesh Yadav cleaned up the second half of South Africa's batting line-up as India stormed to their biggest victory in terms of runs.
Meanwhile, Amla was disappointed with the result but lauded his teammates for showing fight and the will to "dig deep".
"We knew we had to bat long and hard, we tried our exceptional best. AB's effort was fantastic."