India outclass South Africa

An unbeaten 95 from Mohammad Kaif anchored India to an impressive 4/307 in the Bangabandhu stadium, and this was followed up by a dismal batting display in the face of consistent Indian bowling and fielding that saw South Africa crumble to 154 all out, gifting India their second big win in three days, and their biggest ever against South Africa.

Debutant seamer Charl Willoughby opened the bowling and nearly broke through off his fourth legitimate ball, seeing Virender Sehwag loft the ball straight to Robin Peterson at square leg, and then onto the turf. No golden duck for Virender, and that was as good as it got for South Africa.

Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag continued to make a solid start, with the bad balls being punished - Willoughby bowling more than his fair share of these. Makhaya Ntini beat Sehwag's bat moe than once, and struck in the eighth over, when Gambhir (18) could only glove an attempted pull to wicketkeeper Mark Boucher. First-change bowler Allan Dawson continued to serve up enough bad balls to keep Sehwag and Saurav Ganguly in the runs, before Dawson's slower ball found the edge of Sehwag's attempted hook, and Jacques Rudolph showed how it was done. Sehwag was out for 37 and India were 2/89 - a few more wickets and maybe South Africa could get themselves back into it?

Graeme Smith decided that slow left-armer Robin Peterson, rather than Shaun Pollock, would be the man to do that, and Peterson delivered a free hit outside leg for Mohammad Kaif to record his first boundary. Pollock was finally brought on and kept it tight, with the run rate dropping well below five an over, until Ganguly advanced to Peterson and deposited him in the stands over long on. Ganguly repeated the trick a few overs later, with his 148th ODI six. Graeme Smith then brought himself on, and had as much success as Phil Tufnell would in a competition to find Britain's healthiest lifestyle.

Allan Dawson's slower ball struck again to remove Ganguly (75), hitting a skier to Neil McKenzie at mid-off. Smith took himself off after three overs for 20 runs with no reward, then Herschelle Gibbs ran out Yuvraj Singh (11), returning the ball to Dawson with non-striker Yuvraj well out of his ground, and missing his bat into the bargain. That was the last success that South Africa had, with Kaif (95*) and Dinesh Mongia (55*) hitting a huge 58 runs off the last four overs. Mongia's runs came off just 38 balls, and Willoughby finished with dismal figures of 0/77. Allan Dawson's 2/46 were the only figures that a South African would want to remember.

The reply didn't get off to quite the worst possible start, but it wasn't far away. Captain Graeme Smith (1) played an undignified prod at a good ball from Ajit Agarkar and only succeeded in helping it on its way into the stumps. Agarkar struck again soon after, with Jacques Rudolph's slash outside off stump guiding the ball like an exocet missile to Virender Sehwag at second slip, who held it, to leave the Africans 2/13.

Zaheer Khan pulled up after five balls of his fifth over and left the field with a suspected muscle strain. Saurav Ganguly completed the over, and was dispatched for four by Herschelle Gibbs. Harbhajan Singh replaced Agarkar and struck in his first over, Gibbs (26) attempted a leg glance, but got a leading edge straight back to the bowler. The following over, Ganguly took a leaf out of Allan Dawson's book, and delivered a slower ball to Boeta Dippenaar. who miscued it straight to Yuvraj, who doesn't drop those. 4/57 after 16 overs, and the run rate was above 7 an over.

Bangladeshi umpire AFM Akhtaruddin then gave Neil McKenzie not out despite a huge inside edge to short leg, but McKenzie (12) didn't take full advantage, becoming leg-spinner Amit Mishra's first ODI wicket, edging him behind to Parthiv Patel, who took it well. Shaun Pollock did not last long at seven. Coming forward to block Harbhajan, the ball got some extra bounce and sat up to Dinesh Mongia at short leg - definitely out this time!

Mark Boucher played out South Africa's last stand, taking 24 off two overs from Sehwag and Mishra, before umpire Akhtaruddin pulled out an LBW decision that Asoka de Silva would be proud of. The ball pitched outside leg and hit the bat, but was still given out. 7/129, and 9 an over needed. A top edge from Boucher off an attempted guide over midwicket gave Virender Sehwag his first wicket of the innings, Kaif taking a good catch at cover.

Sehwag cleared up the tail in the following over, clean bowling Ntini whose attempted slog missed by quite a distance. Charl Willoughby's début ended very flatly with the attempted slog meeting with as much success as Ntini's two balls before. Patel pulled off an impressively efficient stumping and that, as they say, was that. 154 all out, South Africa's second-biggest ODI defeat, and their biggest against India.

South Africa need to bounce back against Bangladesh tomorrow, and for the hosts this is as good a chance as any to record their first ODI win in four years. However, there's probably more chance of Saddam Hussein getting invited to George W Bush's Independence Day party...

India 4/307 (M Kaif 95*, SC Ganguly 75)

South Africa 154 (MV Boucher 48, V Sehwag 3/28)

India won by 153 runs

Points: India 6, South Africa 0

CricketWeb Player of the Match: Mohammad Kaif (India) - 95*

Posted by Neil