India triumphant in their Twenty20 match against South Africa
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 at Moses Mabhida Stadium, Durban. The visitors won the match by 21 runs to gain the winning momentum heading into the ODI series.
The toss was won by the Indian captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 and he elected to bat first. The conditions of the pitch were suitable for the Indian team as the ball remained low and the pitch didn't have much for the bowlers.
India started the innings positively as the batsmen scored some quick runs. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virat-Kohli-c95424 and Rohit Sharma took the score to 67 before Kohli lost his wicket.
Suresh Raina capitalized on the good start provided by Kohli and Sharma and helped his team reach a total of 168 runs in the alloted 20 overs. This was a decent total, considering the slow nature of the wicket and inconsistent bounce.
Rohit Sharma was the top scorer for his side, piling a superb half century. He scored 53 runs off just 34 balls, in an innings which included two 6s and five 4s. Raina scored 41 runs off 23 balls towards the end of the innings with three 6s and two 4s.
The last match for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Johan-Botha-c67173, Wayne Parnell
and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JP-Duminy-c1742 took one wicket each.
The start of the South African innings was not as good as the home team would've hoped for. Hashim Amla was dismissed after, the otherwise prolific run machine, scored one run. He got out to a ball that kept very low and hit the stumps and would consider
himself a tad bit unlucky.
Other batsmen also kept struggling with the variable bounce of the wicket and the wickets fell at regular intervals. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Morne-van-Wyk-c2025 was the star of the South African innings as he scored some massive 6s.
He was the match's top scorer with 67 runs off just 39 balls. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AB-de-Villiers-c887 also looked good but he was unfortunate to get run-out after scoring just 14 runs.
Botha tried to fight the Indian spinners as he scored 25 runs towards the end of the innings but his efforts were in vain as the home team could only manage 147 runs in their innings with nine wickets down.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ashish-Nehra-c46293 and Yusuf Pathan took two wickets each and all the other bowlers chipped in with a wicket each. The man of the match award went to Rohit Sharma for his brilliant half century.
Both teams will be eying the ODI series and with the World Cup nearing, a series win will be a real confidence booster for the winners.
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