Two consecutive wins for http://www.senore.com/Cricket/India-c750 against South Africa in One Day series
After losing the first One Day match against South Africa, India has certainly been up to the task and defeated South Africa twice in two One Day matches to lead the 5 match series 2-1.
Although, the wins in both games for India were very close ones, victory at New Lands Cape Town will certainly give them huge momentum for the next encounter especially when the home team will be under a vast amount of pressure.
South Africa won the toss and chose to bat first and put a good total on the board. The first blow came for South Africa when they lost the wicket of opener Hashim Amla on 31 runs.
Amla scored 16 runs before he was beaten by a fierce delivery from Zaheer http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Khan-c71319 that went through his defences directly onto the stumps. Collin Ingram made only 10 runs and was sent off from the field by Harbhajan Singh caught by Virat Kohli.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AB-de-Villiers-c887 and Graeme Smith managed to add another 34 runs to the score board for South Africa before De Villiers was caught by Khan on the bowling of Yusuf Pathan after he had scored 16 runs from 19 deliveries.
After only another 7 runs were added to the total, the key wicket of Smith, who was looking very dangerous at 43, fell. He got out on a delivery from Harbhajan and this certainly put South Africa on the back foot at 90 for 4 in 23.2 overs.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Faf-du-Plessis-c1427 joined hands to put on a great show for South Africa and played the anchoring role in helping South Africa reach a respectable total.
Together the duo added 110 runs to the score board with both players making half centuries in style. Du Plessis innings finally came to an end when he was caught by Kohli off the bowling of Munaf Patel, which left South Africa on 200 for 5. He departed after
making 60 from 77 deliveries.
After another 2 runs, Duminy also fell, bowled by Zaheer Khan on 52 runs, which put the pressure back on South Africa, who were 202 for 6 in 45.2 overs having lost both of their set batsmen.
The tail was rattled out by Khan and Patel along with 2 run outs, which helped India send the South African team back to the pavilion in 49.2 overs after making 220 runs.
Khan was the pick of the bowlers for India, with his 3 crucial wickets whereas Patel and Harbhajan grabbed 2 wickets each.
In reply, the Indian innings started in poor fashion. They lost the wicket of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Dale-c52110 Steyn, who took a blinder, diving to his right in his follow through, to give South Africa
an early wicket.
Rohit Sharma and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Morne-Morkel-c77722 after he had made 28 runs.
Just after another 5 runs were added to the Indian score board, another blow came for them as the wicket of another set batsman, Sharma fell after he scored 23 runs. This wicket pushed India in a bit of a slump by being 61 for 3.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Johan-Botha-c67173. He made only 5 runs.
Yuvraj Singh, who seemed to have just settled for his 16 runs, was given out LBW to Duminy, which left India faltering at 93 with the loss of 5 wickets.
To their good fortune, Suresh Raina and Yusuf Pathan rose up to the task and played a great innings, adding 75 runs until Raina was caught by De Villiers behind the stumps on the bowling of Morkel.
Pathan attacked http://www.senore.com/Cricket/South-Africa-c757 with both hands and made a blistering half century and ended his innings at 59 runs, which included 6 fours and 3 sixes. He was caught by Morkel on the bowling of Dale Steyn.
Zaheer khan made 14 runs but could not stay to see India back home. He was dismissed by Lonwabo Tsotsobe. Being 208 for 8 with 12 runs remaining, many thought the match was similar to the previous one, but this time it was India instead of South Africa that
was under pressure.
Pressure was well absorbed by India as Harbhajan Singh played a crucial unbeaten knock of 23 runs, which included two sixes that helped India chase the total down in 48.2 overs with 2 wickets remaining. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ashish-Nehra-c46293 also remained unbeaten for his 6 runs.
Yusuf Pathan was declared Man-of-the-Match for his dazzling knock of 59 that played the anchor role for India to chase down the total.
Now that India is 2-1 up in the five game One Day series, it will certainly be very exciting to watch how the two nations play the next game. After all anything can happen in a sport like cricket.
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