Sachin Tendulkar scored his 99th international century as India set South Africa a target of 297 in a Group B ICC Cricket World Cup match at Nagpur.Tendulkar made 111 off 101 balls with 8 fours, a five and 3 sixes before India lost their way after a magnificent start and an impressive second wicket partnership to be restricted to 296 all out in 48.4 overs by South Africa.Dale Steyn took 5 for 50 as he recovered from a plastering at the start of the innings to restrict India to a gettable target.Four wickets in the batting powerplay between the 39th and 43rd over and another in the 44th meant India fell from 267 for 1 in 39.4 overs, to 286 for 6 in 44 overs.After Sachin Tendulkar fell, Gautam Gambhir (69 off 75balls), Yusuf Pathan (0 off 2 balls), Yuvraj Singh (12 off 9 balls) and Virat kohli (1 off 3 balls) followed quickly.Tendulkar top edged a Morne Morkel ball to JP Duminy, while Gambhir and Pathan fell in a Dale Steyn over. Yuvraj Singh hit a six before holing out in the deep to Johan Botha off Jacques Kallis and Kohli was caught and bowled by left arm spinner Robbie Peterson.The procession did not stop as Harbhajan Singh came and went without too much fuss, bowled by a magnificent Steyn for 3, in the 47th over and Zaheer Khan fell to Peterson too, trying to hit him out of the ground, but holing out to Morkel for a duck.In the 49th over, Ashish Nehra played a Steyn ball into the hands of Graeme Smith and Muaf Patel was bowled off the next ball as India failed to finish their fifty overs.MS Dhoni was unbeaten at the other end as carnage happened in front of him, watching his team lose 9 wickets for 29 runs, remaining not out on 12.Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag got India off to a scorching start and reached 142 off 17 .4 overs, when the latter fell for a lazy shot that thudded on to the stumps, off part-time bowler Faf du Plessis. Sehwag made 73 off 66 balls with 12 boundaries.India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and decided to bat in the key match at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium.India made one change from the side that played the last match against the Netherlands in Delhi, bringing in medium-pacer Munaf Patel in place of leg-spinner Piyush Chawla.The South Africans were forced to go without exciting leg-spinner Imran Tahir, who has a fractured left thumb, and he is replaced by off-spinner Johan Botha.
0 comments:
Post a Comment