Related Links : India in South Africa : Scorecard
Indian batsmen surrendered to the pace and bounce of the Durban track to lose the Second ODI by an embarrassing margin of 157 runs. Even more shameful in the Indian defeat was that they were bowled out for a paltry 91 in just 29.1 overs. The batsmen showed the reality that they were no good once the ball came over their waist height at a brisk speed. For the Proteas, the Man of the Match was Jacques Kallis who not just scored an unbeaten century but also took three wickets.
When South Africa were restricted for 249 for 8, many believed that the Indians were in with a great opportunity to register a victory. But once the inroads were made by Pollock, it was a totally different contest, a wicket here and there and the match was well over. The main ones were that of Tendulkar and Dravid who were the only batsmen to have experience in these conditions. Coming back to Shaun Pollock’s inroads, the first of which had come in just the third delivery of the innings as debutant Wasim Jaffer chopped one onto his stumps after going for his favourite backfoot punch. A third ball duck was all Jaffer could achieve after he had come into the side following Sehwag’s hand injury.
Mohammad Kaif hung in there for a while but he soon perished trying to force Pollock off the backfoot and once the ball got big onto him, all he did was to slice it to backward point. The score was 39 for 2 but there was enough hope for the chasing side with Tendulkar showing good form in the middle. Whether it was pitched short or pitched up, Tendulkar was up to it in a flash. His partner Dravid added the solidity and these two needed to calm the nerves of their players by putting on a solid partnership. Just when they were looking good to do the same, Charl Langeveldt came up with an absolute cracker that jagged back to sneak through Dravid’s defence in the last ball of the 16th over. Just a couple of deliveries after that Andre Nel produced an incoming delivery to which Tendulkar had got an inside edge onto the stumps after looking to drive it through covers. These two wickets were enough to say that India were gone in this match at 62 for 4.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni might have scored some unbelievable knocks in his career, but manufacturing such innings on this wicket and against this bowling was an unrealistic one. But Dhoni did show the courage initially as he slowly got the measure of the bounce. At the other end, Suresh Raina was all at sea facing the seamers, he wasted little time as he edged one Andre Nel delivery into the slips. In the same over, Andre Nel forced Dhoni to glove his short delivery behind the stumps to have India at 83 for 6. Dinesh Mongia did not do anything spectacular and like others threw away the challenge without any fight and the visitors with that were skittled out for 91 as they lost their last six wickets for just 9 runs in 42 balls! Tendulkar was the top scorer with 35 from 51 with 5 fours followed by Dravid who got to 18 and then Dhoni the only other batsman to have got into double figures with a score of 14.
Andre Nel had a great outing with 4 for 13 from his 8 while Kallis picked up three for 3 in 4.1 overs! The damage at the top was done by Pollock through a 7-over spell on the trot with the new ball where he took 2 for 17.
The toss was won by Graeme Smith early on and South Africa took first strike. They went with an all-pace attack while India had one spinner in Harbhajan. There was no place for Anil Kumble, Irfan Pathan and Sreesanth. The comeback pacer, Zaheer Khan began well by nailing Graeme Smith and Loots Bosman, the two openers. Both batsmen were lbw to the left armer. Munaf Patel who returned for a second spell inside the Powerplay overs got rid of Herschelle Gibbs to see the homeside struggle at 63 for 3. However a sensible partnership between Kallis and de Villiers took the initiative away from the bowling side. Kallis had raced away to a fluent fifty and de Villiers just started to gather some momentum with his sweep shots off Harbhajan. The off spinner had to be taken out of the attack following figures of 0 for 35 in 5 overs. Tendulkar who was bowling seam up did a fantastic job though at the other to dry up the boundaries. AB de Villiers threw his wicket away in the 34th over after missing to connect a reverse sweep off Mongia to lose his balance and present an easy stumping for Dhoni. The right hander put on 87 with Kallis for the 4th wicket and had got 41 from just 47 which included a sweep for a six off Harbhajan.
South Africans couldn’t blast on all cylinders even though they had reached the slog stage. Their cause wasn’t helped by the three wickets of Boucher, Kemp and Pollock. With Kallis unable to break free despite getting past his 14th ODI hundred, it looked unlikely that SA would hit the right target of 260 plus. A late cameo of 22 from 12 from Andre Nel changed that in the end to take South Africa to 248 for 8. Kallis remained unbeaten on 119 having consumed 160 balls, his innings had consisted of 15 fours. The three main seamers for India took a couple of wickets each. Tendulkar was the best although he didn’t take any wicket; he conceded just 33 in his 9 overs.
For his all round efforts, Jacques Kallis was the obvious choice for the Man of the Match. It was a heavy defeat for the Indians and it is a preview of what they can expect in this part of the world. The third ODI is at Cape Town on the 26th.