Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Thrilling start to ODI series

India managed to squeeze past the South Africans in the 1st ODI in Jaipur by just 1 run.India batted first and went on to make 298.It was a 300 run wicket,so the match at the half way mark was at par.India lost Tendulkar early,and I guess they missed the in form Gautam Gambhir,who has consistently provided superb starts with Sehwag.Sehwag played a useful hand of 46.Both Sehwag and Tendulkar were runout.Dinesh Karthik played a good knock of 44 as well.Karthik has been very impressive ever since the first IPL.His consistent performance in IPL,domestic cricket has been noticed by one and all.Every indian batsmen contributed a bit,but no one really played a big knock.Raina made a crucail 58.Tailenders Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar added a few vital runs as well to take India to 298.Stand-in skipper Jacques Kallis was impressive with 3/29 in 7 overs.
India gave away too many runs with the new ball,as Bosman and Gibbs added 58 for the first wicket in just under 9 overs.Jacques Kallis came in and played a crucial role as the middle order of South Africa collapsed.However,the tail wagged when needed the most and Wayne Parnell came up with a fighting 49.He supported Kallis for a long while as the skipper made 89.Dale Steyn came in and smashed 35 off just 18 balls.Steyn and Parnell's partnership went over 50 within 35 balls.These two partnerships took the game completely away from India.Suddenly,the visitors looked favourites,though they were looking like definite losers an hour earlier.That is cricket for you,suprising and unexpectable.A bad 2nd last over by Nehra meant SA had just 10 to chase in the last over.Praveen Kumar was handed the ball and he did a fine job.He got Steyn,who was looking dangerous using a slower ball.Then with 4 needed off the last ball,PK bowled a yorker,which was just on the line of the wide.Hence,it was declared a wide and made the game further interesting.With just 3 to win,Parnell managed to hit a shot to third man and completed one run,but was runout while attempting the second,so India won by just 1 run in it.It was a perfect ODI match just like the perfect test match day.It had everything.Now,SA must win both the games to win the series.
The 2nd ODI is in Gwalior tomorrow and will be probably the most important one for the visitors,because a loss in this would mean loss of series.It should be fun.

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