India Vs South Africa : Lady luck smiles on India.

Low scoring games offer great excitement. The 2^nd ODI between South Africa and India was testimonial to the above said fact. India won the match from the jaws of defeat. Proteas, once again choked in the final moments of the match.

Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat. With the pitch on the slower side, scoring runs was difficult. Murli Vijay’s dismissal made it even trickier. The absence of Viru and Gautam in the top of the order was surely felt. Even the maestro Sachin, was battling to score runs of his willow.

With the score reading 67 for 3 wickets, it was an uphill task for the India to come up with a sizeable total. In walked Yuvraj with lots of expectations from the loyal Indian fans. He played an important knock of 50 odd runs and also was the top scorer for India.

The match took a big turn when the batting powerplay was taken by India. They began to bleed perilously. The score in the power play read 14 runs for 4wickets. Indians were looking down the barrel when they began to fall like pack of cards. Unfortunately, the ODI team does not feature VVS Laxman who is always a savior during these kinds of situations. The entire team was bundled out for a meager score of 190 runs.

Now, it was all left for the bowlers to come to the fore front and showcase their skills. Zaheer, along with his fellow pacers had to take wickets straightaway. Munaf did respond to Dhoni’s call in his first over of the game dismissing the in-form player, Hashim Amla. It surely boosted the Indian team. On the contrary, Smith was too strong for the Indian bowlers, where he counter attacked the Indian bowlers on all front.

With the score on 152 for 5 wickets, the victory road seemed too easy for the proteas. They were just 48 runs shy of the target. It surely seemed to be a cake walk with Smith middling the ball for easy runs.

When victory was just in sight for the proteas, Munaf once again broke through as Smith played on and dragged the ball towards the stumps. Indians found a new lease of life. They suddenly looked a different unit all together. They were pumped up.

Like India, the proteas lost as many as 3 wickets in their batting power play. Their score read 7wickets for 163 runs. Still, SA held the upper hand. But when, Steyn lost his wicket there was a pin drop silence inside the stadium. The score read 177 for 8 wickets. Now, runs were like gold dust.

The spectators could not believe what had just happened. The atmosphere was edgy, players biting their nails, fans praying with hands joined together and looking into the heavens above, some were too nervous to even open their eyes and watch the game. Some left their mouth wide open in awe when yet another wicket fell in the name of Morkel. The South Africans were still 2 runs short of the Indian total.

The situation was tensed, everything came to a standstill. Tsotsobe, the hero of the day with the ball strolled in the middle to bat and steered a single. With just a single run required, Munaf ran in to bowl; he pitched it short outside the off stump. As luck would have had it, Parnell went in for the winning shot. Yuvraj singh took a simple catch at point and ran around the field like a mad dog. The Indians had pulled the rabbit out of the hat.

Dhoni’s men came back from nowhere and tied the series with 3 more matches to go. The remaining games are sure to be a humdinger of a match with both teams trying to undo one another.

Both teams need to rethink their batting powerplay strategy. They both faltered in the same hurdle. But, had it not been for the batting power play, the match would have been devoid of any such high voltage drama. It surely showed that batting powerplays are not only for batsmen.