South Africa 215 for 2 (de Zorzi 119*, R Hendricks 52) beat India 211 (Sudharsan 62, Rahul 56, Burger 3-30) by 8 wickets
South Africa levelled the ODI series by bowling India out for 211 in the surprisingly seam-friendly conditions of the usually slow and low St George's Park. It came as no surprise to South Africa, though, who added two frontline quicks to their XI and decided to bowl first on a fresh pitch with the bowling wind blowing.
Left-arm quick Nandre Burger, who seems to have it all in height, pace and movement, led the attack with three wickets either side of a nosebleed-forced absence from the field. The conditions didn't quite ease out, but South Africa had the advantage of knowing they didn't need to be urgent with their scoring and also enjoyed a significant amount of luck in the early goings, which might seem to be at odds with Tony de Zorzi and Reeza Hendricks putting on the biggest opening stand in Gqeberha to set up the comfortable win. De Zorzi went on to convert his maiden half-century into a century.
The win, though, was set up by the fast bowlers, two of whom didn't even play the last match. One of them - Beuran Hendricks - flew in from Cape Town earlier in the morning after Ottniel Baartman and Andile Phehlukwayo were ruled out with injury. Aiden Markram also left out Tabraiz Shami's left-arm spin for Lizaad Williams. The three specialist quicks bowled 28.2 overs between them for six wickets and 113 runs.
After half-centuries from Sai Sudharsan - his second in his first two ODIs - and captain KL Rahul, the lack of depth in India's batting was exposed when they looked to score quick runs and lost wickets to leave Axar Patel with four tailenders over the last 13.2 overs. The last four wickets could add only 42.
Burger and Williams made good use of the Easterly and the pitch with seam movement and also inconsistent bounce. In comparison with Johannesburg, the ball swung much less - 0.6 degrees on an average in the first 10 to 1.3 degrees at Wanderers - but there was appreciable seam movement available, which made batting difficult. If anything, the slightly older ball seemed to be moving more off the deck as it did in Beuran' spell as the first-change bowler.
Burger corrected his length beautifully after being driven for four first ball, trapping Ruturaj Gaikwad lbw immediately. Tilak Varma's stay at No. 3 was a troubled one, but was part of a 42-run second-wicket stand. Burger had to go off the field because of a nosebleed after three overs, but Beuran and Williams remained just as challenging. When Burger came back, his extra pace proved to be decisive as he got Varma on the hook for 10 off 30 balls.
Sudharsan, who had been playing the ball late and not been missing out on any half-volleys, began to be troubled now as B Hendricks found a good length and the ball seamed either way. India were 54 for 2 in 15 overs when South Africa went to the second string of bowlers. Sudharsan slog-swept Keshav Maharaj for a six, Rahul pulled Wiaan Mulder for successive fours, and 37 came off seven overs before Markram went back to Williams.
In the third over of his second spell, Williams produced an unplayable delivery that kicked off just short of a length and took Sudharsan's glove to dismiss him for 62 off 83. At 113 for 3 in the 27th over, India still needed one more partnership before they could think of accelerating but Sanju Samson played Beuran on after looking good once again.
Despite having lost four wickets, Rahul and debutant Rinku Singh looked to attack before the 40th over, which got them 31 runs in 22 balls, but ended in Rahul cutting Burger straight to backward point for 56 off 64. This is when Maharaj came into his own, slowing the ball down and using the drift from the wind to have Rinku stumped and Kuldeep Yadav caught on the sweep. This was a crucial helping hand just before the death overs.
A couple of connected slogs from Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan took India past 200 but they batted only 46.2 overs despite going into the last 20 overs with seven wickets in hand.
Arshdeep was much more impressive with the ball, getting consistent swing and seam, often proving to be too good to take the edge. Reeza, who had spent the first overs of the last two international unable to lay bat on ball, took first strike again and found things slightly easier. Only slightly. He edged Mukesh to second slip in the fifth over, but Gaikwad dropped a second catch there in two matches.
Reeza was in control of just 22 of the first 35 balls he faced, de Zorzi 15 of the first 31 he played. However, de Zorzi was quick to punish any error in length, keeping the run-rate around four. This absorbed the entirety of the highly testing spell of 5-0-14-0 from Arshdeep and Mukesh's 4-0-12-0. At this point, spin came on at one end, and at the other, Avesh began to bowl a touch too short.
Like expert batters do, the South Africa openers now filled their boots, first by slowly working around singles and then targeting Kuldeep and Avesh. De Zorzi swept Kuldeep for four sixes, three of them slogs and only one of them off a wrong'un, which suggests little help for the spinners, which makes Maharaj's contribution earlier in the day significant.
When Mukesh and Arshdeep came back for their second spells, they still moved the ball around, they still troubled the batters, but by then, South Africa had gone past 100. The floodlights had barely come on by then.
Reeza reaped the rewards for hanging in there, getting to a fifty, before he hooked Arshdeep straight to long leg, having added 130 for the first wicket. India had no option but to over-attack now, and both de Zorzi and Rassie van der Dussen cashed in. De Zorzi was there at the end to hit the winning six with 45 balls remaining and eight wickets in hand.
