South Africa find redemption in Ahmedabad Print E-mail
Category: Match Reports
Written by Luke Tagg   
Sunday, 28 February 2010 20:46
On the back of unbeaten centuries from Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers, South Africa posted their highest ever score against India and defended it to win the third and final ODI in Ahmedabad on Saturday.

A vastly improved performance and the luck of the toss ensured South Africa avoided the series whitewash, and the 2-1 result is probably a fairer reflection of the respective sides.

I'd go so far as to say the series was decided by the greatest innings from the greatest batsman of all time - and one run.

Having finally won the toss in the series South Africa were able to show India that although it's one thing posting huge scores, it's quite another chasing them. They posted their fourth-highest ODI total of all time (365/2), their highest against India and their highest outside South Africa.

India batted well to score 275 all out, but were still 90 runs short.

So in the end India crushed South Africa, South Africa returned the favour and a one-run thriller was the deciding factor. India were exactly one lazy single to long-off better than South Africa in the series.

That's gotta hurt. Surely.

To be fair, I also think South Africa's selections were poor in the first two ODIs, although understandable. Hashim Amla should have played from the start and Loots Bosman should never have been dropped, but both selection decisions were only poor in hindsight.

The win was set up by the best South African batting in recent memory. Loots Bosman (68 off 46) and Hashim Amla (87 off 103) put on 113 runs for the opening stand, Amla and Kallis (104* off 94) solidified their position through the middle overs and de Villiers (102* off 59) joined Jakes for a final stand of 173* off the last 17 overs.

Bosman did what he does best - aggressive, uncomplicated hitting. Amla played the perfect sheet anchor role and Kallis played his first 50 runs at a strike rate of 50.00 before upping it dramatically to end with a strike rate of 110.63 - not bad going in any ODI.

It was AB de Villiers who captivated, however, with his second consecutive unbeaten century, which came off 58 balls at a strike rate of 172.88. It was the seventh-fastest ODI ton of all time and the second-fastest by a South African (Mark Boucher holds the SA record of 44 balls, against Zimbabwe).

It was a crushing innings which took the game away from India completely. Any chase after that was likely to be academic.

It may have been different if Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were playing, but South Africa could argue they were without their best player - captain Graeme Smith - for the entire series. You have to deal with what you've got.

The South African bowling was also vastly improved and my two-spinner theory was vindicated as Roelof van der Merwe and Johan Botha took four wickets between them.

Botha got spanked some but got the two key wickets of Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina, as both were approaching half-centuries and threatening the South African total. Admittedly, both wicket-taking balls were rank full tosses that deserved six more than a wicket, but who cares how you get them as long as you do?

Van der Merwe returned 2/47 in 10 overs and will probably get the nod ahead of Botha when South Africa retreat into their conservative shell and opt for one spinner again in future.

Dale Steyn was back to his best, bagging 3/37 in 8 overs, and Lonwabo Tsotsobe bowled some good balls to end with the best figures of the innings - 3/58 in 9.3 overs.

Morne Morkel bowled well but was wicketless, rounding off a very good match all round for South Africa. Even Mark Boucher chipped in with some spectacular keeping, taking four catches and a stumping.

It was a well-balanced side and must have given the coach and selectors some useful insight into future possibilities.

A great way for South Africa to end their tour of India, even though the result was ultimately meaningless. I don't think Indians would begrudge South Africa this win though - we did give them Sachin's 200, after all...

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