The curator at the Captain Roop Singh Stadium in Gwalior has promised another track full of runs.
Match coverage by Supersport 2 starts at 10:30
The series opener in Jaipur shouldn’t have got so close. Ashish Nehra should have been bowled off the penultimate ball of the innings. India’s total, as a result of that freakish incident – when the ball deflected off the stumps – should have been four runs less. India’s bowlers shouldn’t have allowed the South African tail to put their specialist batsmen to shame. A more conclusive camera angle/replay would have determined whether Sachin Tendulkar legitimately saved the boundary in the final over. All these significant incidents proved the difference between an Indian win and any other result.
The South Africans would no doubt have debated these ifs and buts after that game. Dale Steyn and Wayne Parnell scripted a near-Houdini act but it couldn’t hide what was otherwise an unflattering batting performance, Jacques Kallis excepted. It was puzzling why they omitted their in-form player Hashim Amla – not the most well-known limited-overs player around but one who adds glue to the top order. South Africa missed him and could sacrifice one of the openers for him. They have to get their combination right because another defeat will render the series lost and the final ODI a dead rubber.
India won the first game by one run. The game was in the balance until the last ball. Heroic batting by Dale Steyn and Wayne Parnell brought South Africa back into the game after they looked well and truly beaten. One can only wish for another humdinger, and hopefully South Africa can win this game to keep the 3 match series alive.
Match played at Gwalior
Teams
India squad
MS Dhoni*†, R Ashwin, RA Jadeja, KD Karthik, V Kohli, P Kumar, A Mishra, AM Nayar, A Nehra, YK Pathan, SK Raina, V Sehwag, S Sreesanth, SR Tendulkar, S Tyagi
South Africa squad
JH Kallis*, HM Amla, LL Bosman, J Botha, MV Boucher†, AB de Villiers, JP Duminy, HH Gibbs, CK Langeveldt, JA Morkel, M Morkel, WD Parnell, AN Petersen, DW Steyn, LL Tsotsobe, RE van der Merwe
179 – GBS, Well I was just SHOCKED to see the score as I came home now. They must have smacked us everywhere for 6’s and 4’s. We just are not up to it in India. Not this team anyhow. Need to think long and hard about our team for the world cup.
Just pleased I missed this game. Would have drove me nuts to see us being so useless.
Flok, Panell kry ookie runs nie… moer die bal, seun!
Gaan vir mogge troffe!
OK, ons kort nog net 200 runs… hehehehe
Parnell also chops it onto his own wickets….. well he did not score anyway, so bring Morkel in!
Dale Steyn comes in!
watsie score manne
Agge nee wat, nou het die Verleptes al twee rekords weggegooi !
211 / 8
Ons kort net 191
I saw some wickets earlier and it is clear as daylight that wessels is coaching the batters, he too went out on the chop frequently.
GBS, lyk of dit ‘n close finish gaan wees 🙂
Dale Steyn skoon geboul.
1 Paaltjie oor…. om ons van die pyn te verlos.
AB sal gou ‘n ses moet slaan !
Langeveld kan skaars uit sy een oog sien….
Kort net 15 lopies ‘n beurt, met 1 paaltjie oor.
Ten minste kry AB toe sy ton
SO die toer was onsuksesvol. Wel met ‘n nuwe afrigter moet ons hulle seker die voordeel gee, selfs australie kon nie ‘n toets daar wen so dit is positief.
Ons top-kolforde het ons weer gedrop!
Die pyn is verby. Ama Blomme all out for 248
De Villiers not out
GBS, In the odi’s we seem to have gone backward fast. Also lost to England but then of course there were two games washed out. Here in India they making us look like a school boy side. Crazy as we have some great players. Not sure why we were so useless today. Never saw the game.
199@ Puma – To be honest, I watched with quite a bit of devided attention, due to work stuff, but when India batted they ALWAYS looked in control, they found all the gaps, they easily found space for 4’s and 6’s and they batted really at a fast and steady pace.
There did not seem to be anybody in the SA line-up who slowed them down remarkably from a bowling perspective, and of course Tendulkar was on fire, and I mean truly on fire.
It looked like Tendulkar had all the time in the world to pick and play his shots and everything seemed to come off the middle of the bat.
The wicket looked like a classic belter.
None of the SA bowlers had acceptable figures!
Then the Ama-blomme-blomme came on…. and fell in regular intervals, top batting order failing to fire once again. The top order is becoming real tedious in their inability to stand their guard properly. No less than 3 guys fell by pulling shots onto their own wickets.
Who of our top order is really in form, and here I’m not referring to today alone but the last while in total… Amla… with little cameos by Kallis and Greame Smith from time to time.
Dumini, Petersen, Prince, Gibbs…. all letting us down, time and time again… AB stood today, but he’s been just as bad of late.
One never wins a game if only one or 2 players shine, there needs to be that collective radiance, teamwork and mutual support!
In cricket we come short there often, having earned the choker tab there, the big tournaments and matches and moments elude us… in rugby the Springboks have that togetherness, the Bulls have it, the Stormers seem capable this year to have it. Yet in cricket we are still one of the world top Nations… but man, we should be THE TOP NATION, by a country mile!
200 – GBS, WE should be the number one by a long way. Really not sure what is going on. Look we beat Australia in Australia in the tests and odi’s.
Maybe India so used to playing the 20/20 they play their odi’s the same way, meaning going all out from the start. Maybe the way we should be doing it. Have we got the batsmen? Yes we have, they just don’t have the confidence to go for it from the star. Remember GS used to go for it from the word go. Well he is injured and never batted well in the tests. World cup in India next year so we need to get ourselves sorted. Also not sure about Keppler being there if he is coaching the batting then we in the poo as he was a great batsman but not for the shorter version.
Maybe we get India on their return tour here in December on our turf. Then Durbs is like little India. Damn wish the Indian South Africans would support us.
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