India vs http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 to secure 135-run victory
South Africa bombarded the Indians in Durban to claim a win in the opening encounter of their five-match ODI series against India. Winning the toss and electing to bat first, the South Africans posted a sturdy total of 289 runs.
For India to chase down 290 runs, it was imperative to keep wickets intact and this was one thing they could not do – the fearsome Proteas bowling attack took it all away from the tourists.
South African opener Hashim Amla scored 50 runs off just 36 balls, blasting eight boundaries before he was caught by Harbhajan Singh off Munaf Patel. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JP-Duminy-c1742 scored 76 and 73 respectively; both were dismissed
by Rohit Sharma. At one stage, it looked as if the Proteas would surpass the 300-run mark, but India managed to hold them back at 289/9.
India’s bowling was not much to write home about, with no one being able to maintain an economy rate of under four runs per over. Patel, Sharma and Zaheer Khan each took two wickets. Suresh Raina, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ashish-Nehra-c46293 and Harbhajan Singh
took one each. India will not be pleased with Nehra’s performance; he gave away 61 runs in six overs and could only take one wicket.
The worst was yet to come for India, however: if South Africa were unforgiving with the bat earlier, they proved to be even more lethal with the ball. The ball was expected to behave differently in the second innings, and so it
did, clumping India off in front of the Durban crowd. The visitors lost a wicket in just the fourth ball of the innings, when http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dale-c52110 Steyn. Even the legendary Sachin Tendulkar could not live up to his mighty reputation; he was caught
out by Steyn off Lonwabo Tsotsobe for just seven runs. After the valuable wickets of Rohit Sharma and Yuvraj Singh fell cheaply to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Virat-Kohli-c95424 went on to hit his 11th ODI half-century but was caught
out by Graeme Smith off Steyn four runs later. The wickets fell quickly thereafter, and India were eventually all out for just 154 runs.
South Africa’s bowlers shone: Steyn and Morkel took two wickets each, and Wayne Parnell took one. But the true hero of the day was Tsotsobe, who picked up four wickets in just 8.4 overs while giving away only 31 runs. Tsotsobe
was named Man of the Match.
The 135-run win has set the tone for the South Africans, who are now eyeing the second ODI to go further in establishing their domination over the Indians. For India, the defear was quite a setback, as the visitors had been hoping
for this ODI series to serve as a good practice run before the World Cup. The second ODI will be played on January 15 at Johannesburg.
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