New Delhi: Team India won the fourth One Day International (ODI) match in Chennai with 35 runs levelling the five match Paytm ODI series 2-2. The final match of the series will be played at Mumbai on October 25th.
Although Virat Kohli's 23rd century was the main highlight of the match, there were some other performances by the players which grabbed the eyeballs of every Indian cricket fan.
Here are the top five highlights from the fourth ODI between India- South Africa
1) Team India's lower order failed to perform once again: India scored 299 runs in the fourth ODI but at one point it looked that Dhoni's boys will score in excess of 300 runs but the failure of lower order batsmen restricted the team score.
India added only 18 runs in the last 4 overs.
After Kohli departed scoring a brilliant century, there was a mini-collapse from the lower order batsmen. Harbhajan and Bhuvensehwar Kumar were dismissed without opening their account while Axar Patel and MS Dhoni scored just 4 and 15 runs respectively
2) Indian spinners came to the party: Team India's main strength is thier spin bowling attack. In the fourth ODI at Chepauk in Chennai, Indian spinnners took the full advantage of the hot and humid weather and made run scoring difficult for the South African batsmen.
All the three spinners including Harbhajan Singh beat the bat a lot of times. David Miller was seen struggling against Harbhajan. He took the wickets of dangerous looking De Kock when he was at 43 runs and later David Miller also fell to his trap.
Axar took the wicket of Faf du Plessis and bowled miserly to give away just 40 runs in his quota of 10 overs. Leg spinner Amit Mishra also chipped in with a wicket of Farhaan Behardien
The South African batsmen scored 63 runs for the loss of a single wicket in the first 10 overs, but could only add 32 in the next 10 overs with the loss of 3 more wickets.
3) Both Dhawan and Amla failed to give a solid opening to their respective teams: The openers of both India and South Africa are struggling to find thier form back. .While Dhawan made just seven runs from fifteen balls, Hashim Amla too scored seven runs on ten balls.
It will be important for both Dhawan and Amla to come back scoring runs ahaead of the fifth and final ODI at Mubai and give thier team a solid opening partnership.
4) A special innings from AB De Villiers: South African skipper almost took his team to the winning line to seal the ODI series at Chennai.
Although he fell short as De Villiers did not find an able partner and was also finding it hard to tackle the hot and humid weather in Chennai. De Villiers also reached his 22nd century by hitting a six, the second batsman to reach the personal milestone in this fashion in the match after Virat Kohli.
However, his stay in the field was ended by a Bhuvneshwar Kumar bouncer after he edged it to MS Dhoni. Team India should be aware of his capabilities and look to get his prized wicket early in the fifth ODI.
5) Virat Kohli's match winning knock: India's most successful batsman in the present team Virat Kohli returns to what he does best. Kohli scored his 23rd century in his 157th ODI match.
It was his first century against South Africa. With this, Kohli has registered his name in the elite group to score a century against all nine test playing nations.
Today, he came to bat at his favourite number 3 position after the fall of Rohit Sharma when the team Score read 28/1.
Kohli had two great partnerships, first with Ajinkya Rahane and then with Suresh Raina who also scored an half century after a long time. Indian fans will hope that Virat kohli continues with his good form and help Team India win the final ODI match at Mumbai on Sunday.
