South Africa v India, 2010-11

Low-scoring matches are often the most exciting, and this was an edge-of-your-seat thriller. It didn't look that way when South Africa were 119 for three after 24 overs, seemingly cruising to their target of 191. It took a couple of dreadful shots to start the rot, and once the innings had become infected, it was incurable. Duminy slogged the part-time off-spinner Rohit Sharma to long-on, and Smith had his off stump knocked back eight overs later for what had been a stabilising 77, during which he passed 6,000 runs in one-day internationals. Nonetheless, South Africa were still favourites with 39 required, five wickets in hand and far more overs than were necessary. Even after Zaheer Khan removed Miller and Botha in the space of five balls, only 14 runs were eventually needed to win with three wickets left. But Steyn ran himself out, and Morkel and Parnell were both caught at point cutting Munaf Patel, who was mobbed by his team-mates and picked up the match award. His final two wicket-taking deliveries were both nervous military-medium long-hops: such is the margin between success and failure. Tendulkar tweaked a hamstring during his innings, and returned home as a precautionary measure ahead of the World Cup.