da 888casino： South Africa reduced the final margin to 3-2 after beating India by 10runs with 1.1 overs to spare in the fifth one day international at theVidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur today
Sankhya Krishnan19-Mar-2000South Africa reduced the final margin to 3-2 after beating India by 10runs with 1.1 overs to spare in the fifth one day international at theVidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur today. It brought thecurtain down on a highly entertaining series in which four out of fivematches went down to the wire with both sides remaining in the huntuntil the final moments. Lance Klusener was named man of the matchafter unveiling his potent striking power for the first time in theseries and taking 3-59 in the bargain to pull the rug from underIndia’s lower order.It was always going to be an uphill struggle for India after theyallowed the visitors to plunder 320 runs in 50 overs. But a roaringsecond wicket association between Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravidhad the South Africans press the panic buttons as the bowling andfielding went to pieces in the closing stages. Although both Tendulkarand Dravid fell at 193 in the space of three balls, the lower ordermanfully strove to match a soaring asking rate that touched a high of7.83 at the end of the 44th over.Saba Karim and Robin Singh led a counter rally, putting on 31 runs forthe seventh wicket, with the former showing icy cool nerves underpressure to make a sweet 22 in 17 balls with four boundaries. AfterKarim was out, a poor 47th over from Hansie Cronje that cost 13 runsgave India the edge with a couple of misfields by the visitorsseemingly indicating that they were losing control of thesituation. With 18 needed in as many balls, India lost Robin but aboundary by Kumble restored their hopes by keeping the asking rate atsix. However India had already reached the limits of their enduranceand ran out of steam in the penultimate over quite literally as Kumbleand Chopra were thrown out to leave the visitors worthy victors.Earlier Saurav Ganguly, the South African bete noire during theseries, had fallen in the third over, pulling a widish deliveryoutside leg stump into the hands of short fine leg. But SachinTendulkar and Rahul Dravid then produced a magical 180 run stand in alittle under 24 overs.Tendulkar favoured the regions of long on and midwicket for specialattention in his innings of 93 in just 89 balls, inclusive of sevenfours and four sixes. When he reached fifty he also became only thesecond batsman to cross 9000 runs in ODI’s after Mohd. Azharuddin. Butthe revelation was Dravid who went for his strokes with a rareflourish from the word go, without getting into a defensive mould atthe beginning of his innings. His untypically bellicose knock wasworth 79 in 70 balls and his dismissal probably the turning point ofthe match.Ganguly won his first toss of the series in Nagpur, raising his armsin mock triumph and rolling his wrists to indicate that he wasbowling. Two savage assaults by Herschelle Gibbs at the beginning ofthe innings and Lance Klusener at the end took South Africa to thetowering summit of 320/7 on another perfect batting strip. Gibbs losthis prolific partner, Gary Kirsten, run out by Tendulkar in the secondover when trying to steal a cheeky single to midoff. Hitting cleanlyand with equal felicity on either side of the wicket, Gibbs made theIndians pay for two fielding lapses by Kumble and Tendulkar, which lethim off the hook at 31 and 53. He found an enterprising companion inskipper Hansie Cronje whose contribution of 38 in 31 balls out of afourth wicket partnership of 60 helped the innings gather terrificmomentum.After 20 overs, the South Africans had galloped to 160/4 but whenGibbs was thrown out in a smart piece of work by Sriram at cover for74 in 53 balls (12 fours and a six), the batsmen lost their way in themiddle overs. The four man Indian spin attack of Kumble, Chopra,Sriram and above all Tendulkar throttled the middle order with aflattish trajectory, wicket to wicket line and run denyinglength. Just 71 runs accrued to the total in the 20 overs from over 21to over 40 and Tendulkar finished with the quite sensational figuresof 1-31 in 10 overs on this featherbed strip.But the South Africans were merely biding their time and a 114 runseventh wicket partnership between Boucher and Klusener firmly turnedthe match South Africa’s way. Klusener started slowly, taking 29 ballsto score his first boundary. He overhauled his highest score of 19 in14 previous matches against India and then accelerated withbreathtaking speed to end up with an unbeaten 75 in 58 balls thatincluded 8 fours and three sixes.