South Africa crushes India in series opener
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 at Durban.
South African Captain Graeme Smith won the toss and decided to bat first considering the record of the Durban pitch. The wicket has pace and bounce in it, but always favours the bowlers under lights.
Smith and Ingram failed to make an impression and were dismissed early without scoring too many runs. However, Hashim Amla seemed unstoppable yet again. He attacked the bowlers in the first two power-plays and took the score to 82 in almost 14 overs. Amla
scooped the ball in the air and was caught at mid-on, but it wasn’t before he had completed his half century. He scored 50 runs off 36 balls in an innings which included eight fours.
The middle-order was under slight pressure after three wickets had fallen for 82 runs, but http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JP-Duminy-c1742 constructed a magnificent century partnership to lead the team out of trouble. The pair put together a 131-run partnership to take the
score to 213. Devilliers got out after scoring a brilliant 76 runs off just 69 balls. Duminy also reached his fifty and scored 73 runs before he got out in the 42nd over.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Johan-Botha-c67173 and Wayne Parnell then took the total to 289 as both batsmen played cameos of 23 and 21 respectively. Parnell remained unbeaten until the end. Zaheer Khan was yet again impressive for India; the veteran fast bowler took two wickets and didn’t
give away too many runs. Apart from him Munaf Patel and part-time spinner Rohit Sharma also took two wickets each.
The target was a stiff one for India and they kept on losing wickets regularly in the match. Sachin Tendulkar was also not able to perform well in seaming conditions and was dismissed early.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/MS-Dhoni-c2028 was run-out after making 25 and Suresh Raina scored 32 runs before getting out. Apart from these three batsmen, only
Sharma was able to reach double figures. India was bundled out for 154 runs in the 36th over, and this performance will yet again raise concerns for their fans. The Indian team claims to have the best batsmen in the World, but that is only limited to good
batting conditions.
Lonwabo Tsotsobe took four wickets for South Africa, while http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dale-c52110 Steyn grabbed two wickets each. The only disappointment for the home team was that Botha was expensive in the match and didn’t pick-up any wicket.
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