India's bowlers will be thrilled this tour is coming to an end as that means less sparring with Hashim Amla, who has plundered more than 1100 runs in the past 11 months against them in Tests and one-dayers. He collected another century in the series-decider in Centurion to push South Africa to a strong 250 for 9 in a rain-affected game. On Friday, Amla's 67 had been a boundary-filled innings, but today there were fewer attacking strokes and he got 30 successive singles to reach his half-century. After Graeme Smith's troubles against Zaheer Khan continued - again unsure of how the ball will jag around, he nicked to second slip - Amla let No. 3 Morne van Wyk be the aggressor.
van Wyk, given a couple of matches ahead of Colin Ingram, could have failed for the second successive game but his Chinese cut barely evaded the stumps before racing for four. He grew in confidence as the innings progressed, unleashing a series of powerful cuts whenever he was given width, and even pulling off an audacious lap-shot off Munaf Patel for four.
India went in with only two quick bowlers, and their armada of spinners didn't pose too many questions to the South African batsmen. Piyush Chawla was erratic in his first one-dayer since 2008 gifting too many short-and-wide deliveries, though he troubled the batsmen with his googlies. With Amla and van Wyk mostly at ease, South Africa glided to 113 for 1 before Yuvraj Singh plucked a spectacular caught-and-bowled to send back van Wyk.
Yuvraj removed AB de Villiers early again, getting one to spin past the outside edge after the batsman sashayed down the track, to leave South Africa at 129 for 3, and they could have been in even more trouble had JP Duminy been given out lbw two balls later. Duminy survived, and some overs later, Amla too got a life when substitute R Ashwin flapped at a chance at square leg.
Amla and Duminy, the home side's two form batsmen this series, reverted to mainly cautious cricket to revive South Africa with a 102-run stand. The standout shot in Amla's innings was the dab to third man, perfectly timing the ball as he opened the face to pick up several boundaries, one of which brought up his century. Duminy stuck to his failsafe formula of taking singles - 29 out of 31 came in ones - before the rain came down to reduce the match to a 46-over affair.
In the four overs that remained after an 80-minute stoppage, South Africa lost their heads and plenty of wickets as panicky running, smart bowling and attempted slogging combined to result in a collapse of 6 for 24. Amla played only two deliveries in those last four overs. India went into lunch on a high, after having walked off dejected when the showers stopped play earlier.
India will be chasing 268 in 46 overs, with 18 overs of Power Play.
Tags:
Sports