India captain Virat Kohli (left) and Rohit Sharma appeal unsuccessfully against South Africa's Faf du Plessis on the third day of the third Test in Nagpur on November 27, 2015
Nagpur (India) (AFP) - India defeated South Africa by 124 runs with two days to spare in the third Test on Friday to take a decisive 2-0 lead in the four-match series.
The Proteas, who resumed at 32-2 chasing a target of 310, were dismissed for 185 after tea on the third day on a dusty, deteriorating pitch at the VCA stadium in Nagpur.
Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin bagged 7-66, taking his match haul to 12 wickets after claiming 5-32 in the first innings.
India have now won eight of their past nine Tests on home soil -- all inside three days -- having routed Australia 4-0 and the West Indies 2-0 in 2013 before taking the first and third Tests in the current series.
The winning sequence was broken by the rain-hit second Test in Bangalore where the last four days were washed out.
The defeat was top-ranked South Africa's first series loss abroad in nine years after the 2-0 setback in Sri Lanka in 2006.
India won the first Test in Mohali by 108 runs before the rain-hit second match in Bangalore was drawn.
The fourth and final Test will be played at New Delhi's Ferozeshah Kotla stadium from December 3.
