భారత అద్భుత విజయం

It went down to the last ball but when Jacques Kallis fell in the 43rd over, with South Africa requiring an improbable 74 from 43 balls and only two wickets in hand, it looked like game, set and match to India. From there, Dale Steyn and Wayne Parnell threatened to pull of an incredible heist but India held their nerve to clinch a final-ball win in Jaipur.

The quality of cricket was actually below-par from both sides - India's bowling threatened to completely disintegrate under the pressure and barring Kallis, South Africa's batting was quite dismal - but the contest was made memorable by the tailenders Steyn and Parnell. This is how it panned out in the end: Steyn lashed two straight sixes in the 46th over bowled by Suresh Raina, the pair pinched three boundaries in the 48th over bowled by an errant Sreesanth and when both batsmen struck audacious sixes down the ground against Ashish Nehra in the 49th over, South Africa required only 10 from the last over.

Praveen Kumar bowled Steyn with a slower one off the second delivery but the drama wasn't over yet. Charl Langeveldt pulled the penultimate delivery to long leg where Sachin Tendulkar dived full-stretch to prevent the boundary. Many replays later, the third umpire ruled it a legal save and South Africa had to be content with three runs but had the well-set Parnell on strike for the last delivery. More excitement lay ahead as Praveen hurled a wide leaving South Africa needing three to win. Parnell squeezed out the final delivery to third man where Sreesanth fielded the ball cleanly and threw in a slightly wide throw but MS Dhoni had enough time to break the stumps with Parnell just one yard short of levelling the scores.

Until those dramatic end overs where India threatened to choke, they had actually done most things necessary to win the game. No batsman got a big score, but there were enough handy contributions from the top-order to push India to a strong 298. No bowler got more than two wickets but there was enough combined discipline in the attack, till they crumbled under the Steyn & Parnell show, to restrict South Africa.

For their part, South Africa might have come very close in the end but the stand-in captain Jacques Kallis was the only top-order batsman to offer any resistance in the chase where Ravindra Jadeja starred for India with his unspectacular but steady spell of left-arm spin where he used the arm-ball quite liberally to keep the batsmen honest. When Jadeja came on to bowl South Africa were sitting pretty at 60 for 1 from nine overs. When he finished his first spell that read 8-2-23-2, and included the vital wickets of Herschelle Gibbs and AB de Villiers, South Africa had slowed down to 127 for 3 from 24 overs.

He didn't get the ball to turn but repeatedly slipped the one that went straight on with the arm to suffocate the batsmen. The ball also tended to skid on in this surface and at times kept a touch low and the batsmen struggled to put away his armers. He lured Gibbs to slice to long-off and troubled both Kallis and de Villiers with his skidding deliveries. de Villiers tried to wriggle free with an attempted cut shot that proved fatal as he completely failed to connect

MATCH STATS:

South Africa in India ODI Series - 1st ODI

India v South Africa

ODI no. 2961 | 2009/10 season
Played at Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
21 February 2010 - day/night (50-over match)

Toss:: South Africa, who chose to field

India innings (50 overs maximum) ::



V Sehwag run out (Langeveldt) 46(37)

SR Tendulkar run out (Gibbs/Parnell) 4(5)

KD Karthik c Petersen b Langeveldt 44(56)

MS Dhoni*† c Morkel b Kallis 26(29)

V Kohli c Gibbs b Morkel 31(46)

SK Raina c †Boucher b Kallis 58(63)

YK Pathan c Kallis b Parnell 18(13)

RA Jadeja c †Boucher b Kallis 22(20)

P Kumar run out (de Villiers/Langeveldt) 13(14)

A Nehra not out 16(17)

S Sreesanth not out 0(0)



Extras :: (lb 7,w 13)20


Total ::(9 wickets; 50 overs) 298 (5.96 runs per over)


Fall of wickets:: 1-10 (Tendulkar, 1.5 ov), 2-89 (Sehwag, 14.2 ov), 3-116 (Karthik, 18.2 ov), 4-138 (Dhoni, 23.1 ov), 5-204 (Kohli, 36.2 ov), 6-231 (Pathan, 39.3 ov), 7-260 (Raina, 43.4 ov), 8-274 (Jadeja, 45.5 ov), 9-292 (Kumar, 49.2 ov)


Bowling ::

O M R W Econ

DW Steyn 10 1 46 0 4.60 (4w)

WD Parnell 9 0 69 1 7.66 (3w)

CK Langeveldt 10 0 48 1 4.80 (2w)

JA Morkel 8 0 59 1 7.37 (2w)

J Botha 6 0 40 0 6.66

JH Kallis 7 0 29 3 4.14 (1w)


South Africa innings (target: 299 runs from 50 overs) ::



LL Bosman b Kumar 29(23)

HH Gibbs c Kohli b Jadeja 27(40)

JH Kallis* b Sreesanth 89(97)

AB de Villiers b Jadeja 25(23)

AN Petersen run out (Sreesanth/†Dhoni) 9(21)

JA Morkel lbw b Nehra 2(8)

MV Boucher† c †Dhoni b Sreesanth 5(9)

J Botha lbw b Pathan 10(11)

WD Parnell run out (Sreesanth/†Dhoni) 49(47)

DW Steyn b Kumar 35(19)

CK Langeveldt not out 4(2)



Extras (b 1, lb 4, w 8) 13


Total :: (all out; 50 overs) 297 (5.94 runs per over)


Fall of wickets:: 1-58 (Bosman, 8.4 ov), 2-64 (Gibbs, 11.2 ov), 3-109 (de Villiers, 19.1 ov), 4-134 (Petersen, 25.5 ov), 5-142 (Morkel, 27.6 ov), 6-161 (Boucher, 31.2 ov), 7-180 (Botha, 34.6 ov), 8-225 (Kallis, 42.6 ov), 9-290 (Steyn, 49.2 ov), 10-297 (Parnell, 49.6 ov)


Bowling::

O M R W Econ

P Kumar 8 0 46 2 5.75 (2w)

A Nehra 10 0 67 1 6.70

S Sreesanth 9 1 74 2 8.22 (1w)

RA Jadeja 10 2 29 2 2.90

YK Pathan 10 0 51 1 5.10 (1w)

SK Raina 3 0 25 0 8.33


Series India led the 3-match series 1-0

Player of the match RA Jadeja (India)