Rohit rules as India rap SA
Jan. 9: It was a farewell match for one of South Africa’s greatest cricket icon Makhaya Ntini, but neither did he nor his side could script a fairytale end for him. India’s cricketer-millionaires Rohit Sharma (53) and Suresh Raina (41) overcame the unique challenges of Moses Mabhida Stadium with the bat against a spin-dominant South African attack, before Ashish Nehra (2/22) & Co. nipped South Africa’s endeavour to do the same. India collected an easy 21-run in the one-off Twenty20 spectacle here on Sunday.
Rohit gave India a quick start with a 34-ball knock (5x4, 2x6) while Raina took care of the proceedings towards the end as India posted a challenging 168/6 in 20 overs. South Africa looked to give a fitting reply courtesy a Morne van Wyk’s blitz (67, 39b; 5x4, 5x6) at the top, but bottomed out when the opener fell midway through the innings. In the end, the hosts could only manage 147/9 in the allotted overs.
With very short square boundaries and extraordinarily long straight ones at the venue — traditionally a football one — batting wasn’t easy. Seven months back, footballer Carlos Puyol’s thumping header seventeen minutes from time had secured Spain a narrow 1-2 victory over Germany in the 2010 Fifa World Cup semifinals at this very venue.
Slogging was fraught with danger on a pitch that played slow and low. The bounce crucially was not consistent and the batsmen had to rely more on flicks than sweeps to make use of the short boundaries that were just 55m wide.
Van Vyk excelled in these conditions, repeatedly rocking back to launch bowlers over deep mid-wicket. Ironically, he had gone unsold in the IPL-4 auction in Bengaluru over the weekend. After playing out seven balls for a single, he tore into a wayward Munaf Patel (1/26) in the latter’s first over. He smashed Patel over the fence off the pacer’s first ball and then followed it up with two fours.
He pushed South Africa to 93/4 in 10 overs, but after his dismissal, the batting fell apart as part-time spinners Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj Singh along with Nehra bowled a restrictive stump-to-stump line. Yuvraj’s four overs went for just 20 runs.
He picked up J.P. Duminy too. After van Wyk’s 67, the second-highest score was 25 — achieved by skipper Johan Botha.
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