Durban: India produced yet another pathetic batting display in seam-friendly conditions to suffer an embarrassing 134-run defeat in the second ODI against South Africa, who clinched the three-match ODI series by taking an unassailable 2-0 lead here on Sunday.
The hosts rode on the two openers, Quinton de Kock (106) and Hashim Amla (100), to pile up 280 for six in the allotted 49 overs before bundling out the hapless visitors for 146 in 35.1 overs on a gloomy day at Kingsmead.
The famed Indian batting line-up, which had been in tremendous form in sub-continental conditions, found the going tough against the South African pacemen, who tested them with pace and bounce.
Suresh Raina (36) was the only batsman to show a bit of resistance, even as the rest surrendered meekly.
The match was reduced to 49-overs per innings due to a wet outfield.
Facing a chaseable target, the Indian top order melted in the wake of some superior fast bowling from Dale Steyn and a nagging line-length bowling by Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who shared seven wickets between them.
This was after de Kock and Amla shared an opening stand worth 194 runs.
Amla, in the process, crossed the 4,000-run mark in ODIs, the quickest to do so in 81 matches and beating Sir Vivian Richards’ marker of 88 ODIs.
Steyn once again unleashed great pace on the Indian top-order, peppering Shikhar Dhawan and later Virat Kohli. .
The former was first to fall, in the second over, going after a delivery just outside the off-stump and was out caught at point.
Thereafter, after their war of words in the build-up to the match, Steyn welcomed Kohli to the crease with a sharp bouncer.
The Indian vice-captain didn’t last long enough to give a proper response, edging Tsotsobe to the keeper while he was trying to guide a delivery to third man.
Ajinkya Rahane had come into the side for Yuvraj Singh (suffering from a back spasm) and tried to rebuild the innings with Rohit Sharma.
Rahane chased a wide delivery off Morkel and got a faint edge. The Indian top-order collapsed again, reduced to 34/4.
The match was pretty much done, except for an improbable comeback by the remaining batsmen. Skipper MS Dhoni and Raina started in that fashion, but the wind blew away those hopes soon enough. The rain clouds had started gathering and South Africa started going through their overs very quickly, in order to get the 20-over stipulation under D/L method done.
In that time, Dhoni and Raina put together 40 runs, when Vernon Philander induced a thick outside edge and de Kock pulled off a stunning catch going to his right.
Earlier, Dhoni once again opted to field first after winning the toss. Both Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohit Sharma were dropped after a poor showing in the previous match, and Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma replaced them in the XI.
It was a run feast for South Africa as the two openers made merry against the weak Indian attack. Their dismissals slowed the Proteas down, but the damage was already done.
“The bowlers did well. They learnt from the last time, but the batsmen played too many shots. I think the shot selection was not right,” Dhoni said in the post-match press conference.
“The SA attack are very accurate and they keep bowling in the same areas and that’s what makes them different,” Dhoni said.
“I don’t get too much worried about the losses, how we stand up from here is what I want to see. That will test our character.”
South African captain A B de Villiers was happy to see his team dominate the world number 1 ODI side.
“It was a very emotional day (referring to Nelson Mandela’s death recently) and I am glad we came out here and played good cricket,” de Villiers said.
“We have been searching for consistency for a long time and to do it against the No 1 team is a job well done. Quinton and Hash have been very good up front, we struggled towards the end. I though 230-240 was par score, so to get 280 was very good. (PTI)
SCORECARD
Q de Kock c Rohit b Ashwin 106
H Amla c Dhoni b Shami 100
AB de Villiers st Dhoni b J’deja 3
JP Duminy run out 26
D Miller lbw b Shami 0
J Kallis b Shami 10
R McLaren not out 12
V Philander not out 14
Extras: (b-1, lb-2, w-6) 9
Total: (6 wkts; 49 overs) 280
FOW: 1-194, 2-199, 3-233, 4-234, 5-249, 6-255
Bowling: Yadav 6-0-45- 0, Shami 8-0-48-3, Ishant 7-0-38-0, Ashwin 9-0-48-1, Raina 6-0-32-0. Kohli 3-0-17-0, Jadeja 10-0-49-1
India:
R Sharma c Amla b Tsotsobe 19
S Dhawan c Duminy b Steyn 0
V Kohli c de Kock b Tsotsobe 0
A Rahane c de Kock b Morkel 8
S Raina c Miller b Morkel 36
MS Dhoni c de Kock b Ph’nder 19
R Jadeja c de Villiers b T’sobe 26
R Ashwin c de Kock b Steyn 15
M Shami b Tsotsobe 8
U Yadav b Steyn 1
Ishant not out 0
Extras: (b-4, lb-1, w-8, nb-1) 14
Total: (all out; 35.1 overs) 146
FOW: 1-10, 2-16, 3-29, 4-34, 5-74, 6-95, 7-133, 8-145, 9-146
Bowling: Steyn 7-1-17-3; Tsotsobe 7.1-0-25-4, Morkel 6-0-34-2, Philander 6-1-20-1, Duminy 5-0-20-0, McLaren 4-0-25-0