END OF OVER:50 | 13 Runs | IND: 252/6 (19 runs required, RR: 5.04)
- Axar Patel15 (11b)
- Harbhajan Singh20 (17b)
- Dale Steyn10-0-65-0
- Kagiso Rabada10-0-39-0
9.30pm So, South Africa back up the Springboks' fantastic comeback win yesterday with one of their own. AB de Villiers does a Fourie du Preez, great leadership. A thoroughly dominant bowling performance in those last 20 overs. India were favourites for most of that chase and played really well to get into that position but were squeezed like a wet rag in those last few overs. They employed a terrific gameplan of going short and full on middle and leg with a 4-5 field and that did not look like it was working but they soon got those lengths perfect. Dhoni and Kohli were in control of that chase but this plan threw them off their game, as they were stalled. The middle order struggled to find any momentum after both of them fell and Morne Morkel was superb. Three consecutive games won by matches lost in the chase, all of which should have been won by the batting side but well, the quality of bowling has been different from a few months ago. Two sterling performances in today's game with both bat and ball for SA.
Morne Morkel is the Man of the Match: Really worked hard this week on mixing it up a bit. I'm a rhythm bowler and need things to click to operate. We had a couple of gameplans and it is important to execute and we did that. I suppose you live by the sword, you die with the sword, he is a big hitter down the ground and had to vary it. Every time I do well, especially against India is very special. And it will last with me forever.
MS Dhoni: I thought 270 was a par score, the wicket kept getting lower and slower and the dew didn't help us out. It became a bit two-paced and become difficult to play the big shot. We are looking for batsmen to play at 5, 6 and 7. Till they play there, we won;t know who is a good bet over there. And we are looking to give chances as well so it's a tricky one. Jinx batted well at 3 but Virat couldn't score, this is something we will have to look at. I thought our bowlers did well, maybe a bit more dew would have made it difficult. They batted when the wicket was at its best and they also couldn't find runs at the death.
AB de Villiers: Very special batting performance. Quinton answered a alot of questions just like how Quinton can do. We struggled between the 37th and 44th over but found our way at the end. To have Miller up front was out of the box thinking from us. We were looking at 250 as a par, the way we fought back with the ball was special.
END OF OVER:49 | 6 Runs | IND: 239/6 (32 runs required from 6 balls, RR: 4.87, RRR: 32.00)
- Axar Patel8 (9b)
- Harbhajan Singh14 (13b)
- Kagiso Rabada10-0-39-0
- Dale Steyn9-0-52-0