India have won, Nehra plays a stylish lofted on-drive to clear the in-field and get the boundary that confirms the victory, India go up 2-1 in the series, another nail-biting finish and India managed to get over the finish line despite a series of ill-judged strokes
South Africa vs India, 3rd ODI at Cape Town, Jan 18 2011 - Ball by Ball Commentary
RESULT
3rd ODI (D/N), Cape Town, January 18, 2011, India tour of South Africa
New
IND
Full commentary
Whew, that was a thriller. Some superb bowling from Steyn and Morkel, but that was overshadowed by the lethal hitting of Yusuf, who surely has confirmed a place in the World Cup starting XI, and the nerves of steel of Harbhajan. Two clean hits for six from Harbhajan steered India to victory, just as he had in the high-profile India v Pakistan match in the Asia Cup last year.
South Africa were let down by their batting and the back-up bowling - Parnell is still short of confidence. The positives for SA was the confident debut of Faf du Plessis, though we didn't get to see much of his leg spin.
Post-match presentation:
Smith: "Obviously very disappointing, we were some 20 runs short. 240 was a good score on this wicket, full credit to Yusuf whose innings made the difference, the pitch was a bit up-and-down and there was sideways movement as well. Our last five batters managed only 19 runs and lost five wickets in the Powerplay, we could have scored 30-40 runs in that period. We just have to re-group and look to be better than we were today."
Yusuf Pathan is the Man of the Match for his quickfire half-century. "Good win for us. The hundred against NZ has made a big change in my career and also my confidence. If I get the ball in my area, I'd go for it."
MS Dhoni has a big grin on his face. "Very good effort from the lower middle order. The death bowling and Powerplay was also very good from us. We just told the youngsters to play their natural game, we want Yusuf to play the sort of game he plays. Harbhajan is kind of an allrounder for us, though we don't put the pressure on him by calling him an allrounder, and he's been bowling very well, taking the momentum away from the South Africans. Catching has been decently good, we have been outstanding so far, ground fielding has also improved a bit."
Vijay007 says: "With matches like these, who needs to go to the gym to give the heart a good workout?"
Sriram Veera has the bulletin of the match here. Do send us your six-word reports for this game. We'll publish the best ones on Page 2.
That's it from me Siddarth Ravindran, thanks for all the mails. If you are craving more cricket, hop on over to our commentary of the final day of the Pakistan-New Zealand Test which starts in around half an hour.
48.2
4
Botha to Nehra, FOUR runs
Slip and short leg in place for Nehra
48.1
1
Botha to Harbhajan, 1 run
a fullish ball is hammered to long-on for a single, two to win now, batsmen have a mid-pitch conference
Botha to bowl, no more options for Smith
end of over 482 runs
IND: 218/8CRR: 4.54 • RRR: 1.50
Ashish Nehra2 (9b)
Harbhajan Singh22 (24b 2x6)
Wayne Parnell 8-0-53-0
Morne Morkel 10-0-28-3
47.6
•
Parnell to Nehra, no run
full ball outside off, struck on the pad outside off, there's a stifled shout for lbw, Nehra is quick to show the umpire the bat
47.5
•
Parnell to Nehra, no run
length ball outside off, Nehra confidently takes a big stride forward and defends towards cover
47.4
•
Parnell to Nehra, no run
length ball on the pads, defended to the leg side Parnell sprints across to field it, there are loud shouts of 'No, no' from the batsmen
47.3
•
Parnell to Nehra, no run
superb keeping from AB, that would have been game over if he missed that, it was fired in by Parnell, just beats the bat and scoots low towards AB who collects it to his left
Two slips in place
47.2
1
Parnell to Harbhajan, 1 run
fullish ball outside off, another edge, this time to third man for a single
47.1
1
Parnell to Nehra, 1 run
'Two, two' Nehra calls after tucking a full ball on middle and leg towards square leg, Harbhajan will have none of that, takes the single to get on strike
end of over 478 runs
IND: 216/8CRR: 4.59 • RRR: 1.66
Ashish Nehra1 (4b)
Harbhajan Singh21 (23b 2x6)
Morne Morkel 10-0-28-3
Lonwabo Tsotsobe 10-0-41-1
46.6
1
Morkel to Nehra, 1 run
short ball on legstump, Nehra tries to take evasive action, he can't evade the ball, off the ribs and past the keeper for a leg bye, Harbhajan wanted Nehra to come back for the second and is not happy that only one run was taken
One more ball for Nehra to survive
46.5
•
Morkel to Nehra, no run
length ball outside off, Nehra punches it off the front foot towards cover where Amla fields
46.4
•
Morkel to Nehra, no run
he stretches across and tries to poke a delivery outside off, luckily for him there's no edge
Two slips in place for Nehra
46.3
1
Morkel to Harbhajan, 1 run
bottom hand comes off as he tries another big heave, ball rolls toward midwicket
46.2
6
Morkel to Harbhajan, SIX runs
huge! Harbhajan gets the front leg out of the way and blasts that short of length delivery high and into the crowd beyond long-off, is that the game-sealing hit? there was no long-off, only a mid-off in place so it was quite a safe option, Rohit Sharma pumps his fist in the Indian dressing-room, South Africa have a mini-conference
46.1
•
Morkel to Harbhajan, no run
length ball outside off, Harbhajan waltzes across the stumps and looks to hammer that over midwicket, he's not looking to play out this over, all-out aggression from Harbhajan, can't connect on this occasion
Smith calls on Morkel. 9-0-20-3 are his figures today.
end of over 465 runs • 1 wicket
IND: 208/8CRR: 4.52 • RRR: 3.25
Ashish Nehra0 (1b)
Harbhajan Singh14 (20b 1x6)
Lonwabo Tsotsobe 10-0-41-1
Wayne Parnell 7-0-51-0
Will Morkel bowl his final over now or will Parnell continue?
45.6
•
Tsotsobe to Nehra, no run
a muted lbw appeal, but Nehra signals that he inside-edged that one from Tsotsobe
45.5
W
Tsotsobe to Khan, OUT
and that's all the swinging Zaheer will do today, another short ball from Tsotsobe, Zaheer was completely cramped for room, he tried to flat-bat that one over the in-field, can't time the ball though and the ball loops to mid-off, this match is on a knife-edge, Nehar and Munaf can't bat but all they need is some trademark Harbhajan hits
Zaheer Khan c Smith b Tsotsobe 14 (25b 2x4 0x6 31m) SR: 56
45.4
4
Tsotsobe to Khan, FOUR runs
Zaheer was looking for the Hollywood hit to midwicket, instead he gets a thick inside-edge off a full ball, the Chinese cut races past short fine leg and that's four priceless runs for India
45.3
•
Tsotsobe to Khan, no run
slower ball outside off, 111kmh, Zaheer was looking to back away and he is foxed by that one
45.2
•
Tsotsobe to Khan, no run
Tsotsobe escapes with a ball sliding onto the pads, fine leg and square leg are in the circle, Zaheer can't get bat on it though, AB moves quickly across to collect the ball, he had the gloves off in a jiffy and was set to throw down the stumps as well
45.1
1
Tsotsobe to Harbhajan, 1 run
Harbhajan gets on one knee and flat bats the ball down the ground, he immediately calls for two, but there have to settle for one
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