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Virender Sehwag's introduction in the bowling this afternoon was instrumental in seeing a rapid finish to the third and final Test on the third day itself. Sehwag produced a couple of magic deliveries that broke the resistance of Jacques Kallis and Graeme Smith and after that the rest of the South Africa batting in their second innings fell to pieces on a difficult track. The visitors were bundled out for a paltry 121 which left an easy target of 62 for the home side. India cruised to the target in a little over 13 overs to not only draw the Test Series 1-1 but also to retain their No.2 spot in the ICC Rankings.

The day started with the last Indian pair of Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma trying to get as many runs as possible to stretch India's overnight lead of 23. Luck was with the pair totally leaving the South African bowlers with plenty of frustration. A few lucky escapes and some spirited batting from Sreesanth and Ishant took India past the 300-run mark and then to a precious 60-run lead before Harris brought an end to the innings. Sreesanth, who was the last man dismissed made a fighting 29 (from 44 balls with 5 fours) while Ishant Sharma stood tall with an unbeaten 14 (from 38 balls). Both had added as many as 46 runs for the last wicket.

MS Dhoni didn't wait at all to bring on the Turbanator into the attack. Harbhajan was given the new ball straightaway which could atleast put a lid on the scoring rate. After a solid start, South Africa lost their first wicket in the 12th over when Neil McKenzie (14 from 45) did the fatal mistake of going for a pull shot on a wicket that had uneven bounce. He failed to connect his shot off a Sreesanth delivery and the Umpire had no issue in ruling that out as lbw. By then SA could only get 26 runs as they didn't really go in their usual aggressive manner. Just a few minutes later, Harbhajan got one to spin sharply and bounce to force a bat pad catch off Hashim Amla in his backfoot defence. SA with that were struggling at 27 for 2 at lunch.

In the afternoon session, the experienced duo of Smith and Kallis inspired a fightback for the visitors. Dhoni had to make his changes quickly as there was no way India could have chased anything over 150. He brought on Virender Sehwag into the attack and the part-timer struck with his first ball itself which spun and kicked off to force an inside edge off Kallis's blade for the bat pad fielder. Kallis survived for 83 minutes without really contributing much to the scoring, he made 15 out of a stand of 38. A few overs later, Graeme Smith (35 from 90 balls with 3 fours) was stunned by an overpitched delivery outside his legstump that turned quickly to strike his exposed leg stump. The magician was once again Sehwag and the momentum now was on a high as the other South African batsmen walked in and walked out of the middle in quick time.

With Sehwag taking two big wickets, it was a matter of prestige for Harbhajan to capture wickets as well. And he delivered by getting AB de Villiers getting caught at leg slip to make it 90 for 5. Joining the party now was Ishant Sharma, who got a nasty bouncer to get Boucher fending behind. India were lucky to get this break early as they had missed an easy run out opportunity a few deliveries back when Boucher and Prince were caught at the same end. At 101 for 6, it was going to be a quick finish. The tail didn't have any chance to survive and Ashwell Prince remained helpless at one end with a stubborn 22 (from 87 balls) which didn't help SA in posting a competitive target. The Proteas made just 121 despite facing 55.5 overs. Harbhajan with 23-7-44-4, Ishant with 10-2-18-2 and Sreesanth with 9-4-9-1 were all responsible in making sure that SA didn't run away with the runs. The star performer was Virender Sehwag as he finished the innings with the last wicket to end up with 8.5-2-12-3.

India chased the target of 64 in less than an hour and in 13.1 overs. Sehwag gave himself a good practice ahead of the IPL by smashing 22 in 12 balls which included a four and a couple of sixes. Jaffer (10) did the same with a couple of uppish flick shots. Both openers got dismissed though inside the 5th over. Ganguly (13 from 28 with 2 fours), promoted up the order at no.3 along with Dravid (18 from 29 with 4 fours) finished the match off without any fuss to take India to a 8-wicket win. Ganguly deservingly got the Man of the Match while Harbhajan Singh got the Player of the Series award.

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