… series set for thrilling finish tomorrow
(REUTERS) – South Africa levelled the one-day series at 2-2 by beating India by 48 runs on the Duckworth-Lewis method after bad weather ruined the fourth match yesterday.
India, chasing 266 for victory, were 142 for six when rain ended play in the 33rd over. The fifth and final game in Centurion will be played tomorrow.
Earlier, JP Duminy rescued South Africa from a middle-order collapse to take them to 265 for seven at St George’s Park. Duminy’s unbeaten 71 allowed the home team to recover from 118 for five after electing to bat first.
The left-hander had two able lower-order partners in Johan Botha (44) and Robin Peterson (31), sharing partnerships of 70 and 54 respectively for the sixth and seventh wickets.
Hashim Amla (64) set the early pace as he became the fastest batsman to score 2 000 runs in one-dayers. He needed just 40 innings to break the previous record of 45 shared by Pakistan’s Zaheer Abbas and England’s Kevin Pietersen.
Spinner Yuvraj Singh took three for 34 while Virat Kohli featured in two run-outs and claimed a superb catch at slip to remove Morne van Wyk for 15.
Paceman Lonwabo Tsotsobe then removed India openers Rohit Sharma (1) and Parthiv Patel (11) in his first spell to put South Africa on top.
Yuvraj also fell to spinner Botha for 12 as the visitors slumped to 49 for three.
Kohli, though, smashed 87 not out in 92 balls to keep India in the game.
He hit two sixes and seven fours but the regular flow of wickets at the other end meant he would have had a lot of work to do to carry his team to victory if rain had not intervened.
SOUTH AFRICA innings
H. Amla run-out (Kohli)    64
G. Smith c Harbhajan b Nehra    18
M. van Wyk c Kohli b Yuvraj    15
A. de Villiers c Dhoni b Yuvraj    3
JP Duminy not out    71
F. du Plessis run-out (Kohli)    1
J. Botha stp. Dhoni b Yuvraj    44
R. Peterson run-out (Pathan)    31
D. Steyn not out 4
Extras: (b-1, lb-1, w-10, nb-2)    14
Total: (for seven wickets, 50 overs)    265
Fall of wickets: 1-57, 2-106, 3-111, 4-115, 5-118, 6-188, 7-242.
Bowling: Zaheer 9-1-55-0, Munaf 8-1-49-0 (nb-2), Nehra 6-0-27-1 (w-2), Harbhajan 10-0-61-0 (w-4), Yuvraj 8-0-34-3, Rohit 2-0-6-0, Raina 3-0-13-0, Pathan 4-0-18-0.
INDIA innings
R. Sharma c Duminy b Tsotsobe    1
P. Patel lbw b Tsotsobe    11
V. Kohli not out    87
Yuvraj Singh c Smith b Botha    12
S. Raina stp. de Villiers b Peterson    20
M. Dhoni c du Plessis b Peterson    2
Y. Pathan c de Villiers b Morkel    2
Harbhajan Singh not out    3
Extras: (lb-2, w-2)    4
Total: (for six wickets, 32.5 overs)    142
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-32, 3-49, 4-112, 5-123, 6-128.
Bowling: Steyn 4-0-15-0, Tsotsobe 6-1-25-2, Morkel 6-1-13-1 (w-1), Botha 6.5-0-27-1, Peterson 8-0-46-2, Du Plessis 1-0-5-0 (w-1), Duminy 1-0-9-0.