South Africa vs. India - 3rd ODI, 1st innings: SA post 220 total; debutant http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Faf-du-Plessis-c1427 highest scorer
India strangled South Africa hard throughout their innings in the 3rd ODI, and the visitors did well to dismiss http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 for just 220 runs.
South Africa captain Graeme Smith decided to bat first after winning the toss, but he would not have expected to find things as difficult in the middle as he did. Zaheer Khan was in top form and made Smith jump all around the place
with his consistent out-swingers going. Hashim Amla and Graeme Smith both found it hard to get the ball in the middle of the bat, as Zaheer Khan and Munaf Patel really made the new ball talk. Smith in particular looked unsettled, playing and missing several
times to Zaheer. But it was Amla who departed first; the right-hander chopped on a big in swinger from Zaheer after just 16 runs with 2 fours.
Colin Ingram was the next man in and things did not get any easier for him either. He did manage to play out the first spell of Munaf and Zaheer alongside Smith, but the first change bowler Harbhajan Singh got the better of Ingram.
The left-hander was caught brilliantly in the slips by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AB-de-Villiers-c887 came in next and knew that runs were hard to come by so he decided to stick it out alongside his captain. The two added 34 runs for the 3rd wicket before
de Villiers’ frustration gave way and he played a rash shot off Yousuf Pathan and was caught well in the deep by Zaheer Khan. De Villiers scored 16 runs without any boundaries.
Graeme Smith’s resistance finally broke when his hard-fought 43-run innings was ended when he mistimed a sweep and the ball went to the slip. Kohli dived full length to complete a brilliant catch off the bowling of Harbhajan Singh.
JP Duminy and ODI debutant Faf du Plessis got together, and both knew that they had to work hard to take this innings to safety. Duminy, along with the debutant, dug in deep and made sure that the home team did not lose any further
wickets in the middle overs.
The pair looked determined and put on 110 runs for the 5th wicket. Du Plessis completed his maiden 50 and after taking the powerplay started to play big shots. He was caught in the covers; it was the 3rd excellent
catch for Kohli as du Plessis was dismissed for 60 runs – the highest score made by the South African team. And just as it happened in the last game, powerplay brought another wicket. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/JP-Duminy-c1742 walked across to play a fine glance and left his leg stump exposed
which Zaheer Khan hit expertly. Duminy scored 52 runs with 2 fours. The rot did not stop there and wickets just kept going down: Wayne Parnell lasted 3 balls before he went for a needless 2nd and was run out.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 now has a great chance
of making it 2-1 in the 5-match series. Zaheer Khan took 3 wickets, while Harbhajan Singh and Munaf Patel took 2 wickets each for India.
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