Didn't expect the ball to stay low, says Shami

Mohammad Shami has often troubled visiting batsmen back home in India even on benign pitches. The right-arm quick has perfected the art of fast bowling in those conditions. The SuperSport Park offered him home conditions away from home and the paceman exploited them to return a four-wicket haul on the fourth day, including a spell of 7-2-26-3.

"I didn't expect that the ball would stay so low in this wicket," Shami said on Tuesday. "Till now, in overseas conditions, we haven't seen such slow and low keeping wicket. So, I don't know what they were thinking when they made this wicket. But it's okay, whatever it is, we have to play on it and the conditions are the same for both teams," he remarked.

Having taken three wickets in quick succession just before lunch, Shami was expected to continue bowling in the second session too but he didn't get to bowl much in that phase.

"No, it depends on the captain when he wants to bowl you and when he wants to bowl which bowler," Shami reasoned when asked about him not coming on to bowl. "It also depends on the conditions, I suppose. I bowled before lunch so I couldn't bowl immediately. So, the captain is also thinking that we should bowl with rotation. So the plan was that whenever I get chance, I will come to bowl."

The paceman also ruled out any injury concerns in the same breath. "No there are no injury concerns. You saw that I was giving effort on the field and helping the team make a comeback and get them out quickly so we could bat again soon."

South African opener Dean Elgar said winning the series against India would be "immensely special", especially after the manner in which they were beaten in India in 2015.

"Throughout the years South Africa versus India has always been a massive competition between big rivals," he noted. "Even watching as a kid on TV you could see it's a passionate and proud series to play in and to win it is immensely special for the group. So, for South Africa it will be very satisfying. I think what happened in India, we left with a lot of scars. Us giving them the kind of treatment and beating them here in South Africa is definitely going to be satisfying for us."