SA recover after early stutter

India had South Africa on the mat but failed to tighten the noose as Jacques Kallis’ side posted a decent 148 for seven in 31 overs in the rain-truncated third and final one dayer

India had South Africa on the mat but failed to tighten the noose as Jacques Kallis’ side posted a decent 148 for seven in 31 overs in the rain-truncated third and final one dayer here today.

After reducing the opponents to 28 for four, India could not go for the kill and a 99-run stand between Justin Kemp (61) and Herschelle Gibbs (56) propped up the South African innings to a challenging total on a seaming track. With the series levelled at 1-1, it all boiled down to the final match but due to rain and wet outfield, more than five hours were lost and the match was reduced to a 31-over-a-side contest.

After Dravid won a good toss and decided to field, South Africa ran into trouble straightway with comeback man Ajit Agarkar and Sourav Ganguly coming up with identical two-wicket bursts. Keen to make his mark in the series after missing the first two matches with flu, Agarkar trapped in-form Morne van Wyk for a duck with his fifth delivery.

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His second over too yielded a wicket with the gem of a delivery that hit the perfect length and swung the other way past the flailing blade of a bamboozled Jacques Kallis to hit the off stump. Like van Wyk, the South African batting mainstay too went for a duck. Agarkar’s first spell of 4-0-8-2 made impressive reading.

South Africa could have been in further trouble with opener AB de Villiers (15) back in the pavilion but first, umpire Aleem Dar turned down a catch and then Gambhir dropped a sitter.

Sourav Ganguly, however, ensured that the opener did not make the most of the lives he got. In conditions that suited his bowling, Ganguly was in fact on a hat-trick after removing de Villiers and Jean-Paul Duminy (0) with successive deliveries.

Their back against the wall, Kemp and Gibbs decided attack was the best defence and counter-attacked with Chawla and Yuvraj bearing the brunt of the charge.

SCOREBOARD

South Africa

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AB de Villiers c Dhoni b Ganguly 15, M van Wyk lbw b Agarkar 0, J Kallis b Agarkar 0, H Gibbs b Khan 56, J Duminy lbw b Ganguly 0, J Kemp b Tendulkar 61, M Boucher not out 11, A Hall c Kaarthick b Tendulkar 1,

Extras (lb-3 b-1) 4

Total (7 wickets, 31 overs) 148

Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-8, 3-28, 4-28, 5-127, 6-144, 7-148

Bowling: Zaheer 7-0-29-1, Agarkar 6-0-21-2, RP Singh 6-2-15-0, Ganguly 6-0-24-2, Piyush Chawla 3-0-28-0, Yuvraj 2-0-17-0, Tendulkar 1-0-10-2.