SA shrink from India attack
PROTEAS SHRINK FROM THE FIGHT
AS INDIA closed in on a hard-fought, and much-needed 22-run victory, the 27 000strong Indore crowd lit up the stadium with their cellphone torches, as if to symbolise the reignition of India’s challenge in this extended tussle with South Africa.
Having flickered, then faded terribly in the afternoon heat, before finishing with a flurry to post 247/9, India then lit up the night with their best bowling performance of the tour.
The rearguard was sparked by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the skipper clawing his team from the depths of 124/6, as he ended on a defiant 92 not out, from 86 balls.
It wasn’t so much the number of runs, but the manner in which he scored them that spoke volumes of Dhoni’s character. For the past few days, the Indian captain’s stranglehold on his power was questioned.
Perhaps, they whispered, it was time… Not yet, he roared last night. Not yet.
Dhoni may have been replaced by a more circumspect, more selective operator, but he was just as efficient yesterday as his cool head kept his side in the series.
Had India been rolled over for 150 or so, which looked likely with the tourists’ tails up, Dhoni may not have seen out this ODI series as skipper.
But the raconteur from Ranchi is not done yet, still writes his own scripts, and his final act has not come yet.
He snarled and snapped at his partners as they fell around him, then goaded the tail to stick with him, as he dug India out of a deep hole.
His 92 deserved the pittance of eight more that would have made his statistic more telling in the record books.
But, for India, his contribution was perhaps more significant than Rohit Sharma’s 150 the other day, because it made a bigger impact, and brought the series back to life.
In response, South Africa should have made a far better fist of it.
Openers Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock both struck the ball sweetly from the start, but then wasted their work with woeful mind farts.
Amla’s dismissal, a dance down the wicket, followed by a wild hack, was wholly uncharacteristic. The recklessness of that shot made De Kock’s even worse.
Both men fell after hitting a boundary the ball before. They got greedy, and paid the consequences.
A B de Villiers had left the field before the end of India’s innings with a stiff back.
That meant he came in at three down, after J P Duminy. By then, Duminy (36) and Faf du Plessis (51) had added 82, which really should have decided the contest.
But, Du Plessis fell for the second match in succession when he looked bang on for a big one, holing out to cover off Axar Patel.
David Miller’s slump then deepened, as he chased his first ball from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and was brilliantly held by Dhoni.
De Villiers (19) then fell victim to an even better grab by Kohli, tumbling away to his left, as the Proteas slipped to 167/6. India’s fielding ace threw the ball high into the Indore sky. That had to be the end of it, they thought.
Ultimately, it proved so, but not until Kagsio Rabada had given them an almighty scare. While his menace with the ball is well documented, few knew about his ability with the bat. He stood and swung, and the ball kept disappearing to the fence.
Suddenly, 50 to win became 40, then 31, and then 22. Surely some 20-year-old was not about to deny India again with 11thhour heroics.
But last man Morne Morkel slashed Kumar to Raina. Kohli screamed. Kumar leapt. And Dhoni? Dhoni slapped Raina on the back, then slunk off his glove to offer a hand to Morkel and Rabada. He’s not done yet. Not just yet…