Virat Kohli 138, AB De Villiers 107 Highlights - India vs South Africa 4th ODI: India came into the match with not only the series on the line but also its pride. After the lacklustre performance in the last ODI, which they lost despite being in a winning position, brought lots of criticism for captain Dhoni and the constant shuffling of batsman in the batting order.
The 4th ODI of the PayTm series started with India winning the toss and opting to bat. Dhoni, who has a second home in Chennai because of playing for Chennai Super Kings in IPL for 8 years, knows the ground like the back of his hand. India also included 3 spinners with Harbhajan coming in for Binny.
South Africa was made to do 2 force changes due to injuries to Morkel and Duminy. In came Aaron Phangiso and Chris Morris as a replacement and the pitch behaved as expected. It was slow and low on the bounce, which was not experienced by the Indian openers who were peppered with short deliveries by both Rabada and Morris.
Rohit Sharma looked good and even hit some beautiful shots, but played one too many flicks on the up and was caught off the bowling of Morris for 21. Morris accounted for a clearly uncomfortable Dhawan who has not looked in sorts in this series at all. He gloved a ball down the leg side to a great catch by De Kock on the bowling of Rabada.
©BCCI
But then came the partnership of Indian innings between Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane who was promoted to no.4 in this match. Both not only steadied the Indian innings but also started to up the run rate. Kohli was more dominating one of the too and Rahane provided good support. Both added 104 runs for the 3rd wicket before Rahane was dismissed by Steyn. In came an out of form Suresh Raina to join Kohli and the pair added 127 runs in almost 18 overs with Raina scoring a face-saving 53 off 52.
Kohli made a well compiled 138 despite severe cramping at the end and his innings was ended by Rabada. Dhoni tried his best but has seemed to lose his timing with hitting and couldn’t score much. India ended up making 299-8, falling short by at least 25-30 runs. Kagiso Rabada was the pick of Proteas bowling with 3-54 in 10 overs.
Virat Kohli stats:
- Became the 5th batsman to score ODI one or more centuries against every Test playing nation. the other players are Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Herschelle Gibbs and Hashim Amla.
- Has scored 16th centuries at no.3 only Sangakkara (18) and Ponting (26) have scored more than him.
-was his first century after 13 innings. Last time he scored a century was at Adelaide in World Cup 2015.
- Now has the second highest number of centuries for India in ODIs (23). Went past Sourav Ganguly (22) and now trails Sachin Tendulkar who has 49 centuries in ODI.
South African innings:
South Africa began their reply in not so good fashion, losing Amla for 7 in 6th over when Mohit Sharma got him with an uppish flick. But on the other end De Kock picked up from his last game and started flaying the Indian attack and especially Bhuvaneshwar Kumar to all ends. But introduction of spin brought his innings to an end when he nicked an off spin delivery from Harbhajan Singh to Rahane in second slips for 43 off 35 balls.
Axar Patel then accounted for Faf du Plessis for 12 and Harbhajan got Miller plumb LBW for 6 leaving AB de Villiers and South Africa reeling at 88/4. Then a partnership blossomed between De Villiers and Behardien with De Villiers slowly and surely starting to pick up pace. The duo put on 56 runs before Behardien was dismissd by Amit Mishra for 22 and De Villiers began going after the bowling.
Chris Morris scratched around for 9 runs, but AB de Villiers completed an excellent century at a run a ball pace and kept Africa in the match. But his dismissal at the hands of Kumar for 112 ended those hopes. Phangiso made 20 and he and Steyn were dismissed by Kumar in one over to end any resistance from South Africa.
India won the match by 35 runs and has kept the series alive, making the 5th and final match a decider to be played the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on 25th October 2015.
Brief Scorecard:
India 299/8 (V Kohli 138, S Raina 53; K Rabada 3/54 ) defeat South Africa 264/9 (De Villiers 112, De Kock 43; B Kumar 3/68) by 35 runs.
AB de Villiers stats:
- This was his 22nd ODI century. He became the highest century maker for South Africa in ODI, leaving behind Hashim Amla and Herschelle Gibbs, both having 21 hundreds to their name.
-Completed his 1000 ODI runs in India in just 18 innings, making him the fastest to do so. Previous record holder was Chris Gayle who did it in 21 innings.
-AB De Villiers now has 8134 ODI runs in 189 matches, making him the second highest run getter for South Africa in ODIs. Jacques Kallis holds the record with 11550 runs in 323 ODI matches for South Africa.
- AB de Villiers completed 1000 runs in ODIs in 2015 at an average of 76.71 and strike rate of 133.58 with 4 centuries and highest of 166 runs against West Indies in ICC World Cup 2015.
