At last India managed to un-turn the history and the fourth encounter between South Africa and India ended with an Indian victory. Probably the victory of India was a result of the collective effort of all the players in all the departments of the game; batting, bowling and fielding. Both the teams were aware that they needed runs on the board and that too in a steady rate. India could not keep their pace and lost wickets in their death overs. But South Africa was neither able to keep a steady run rate and also lost wickets at regular intervals, and got all out within 40.2 overs and managed to get a total of just 177 against India’s 307.

Shikhar Dhawan’s ton helps India break World Cup jinx

Captain cool’s luck favored from the first point of the match i.e. the toss. As it was expected MS Dhoni chose to bat first. South Africa was also ready with a single change in their squad; Parnell was brought in for Behardien due to his decent enough batting. India had no change in their winning combination and had the same squad from the Pakistan match.

Rohit Sharma again got run out by a brilliant throw made by the South African skipper, AB de Villiers. Kohli again came in at the spot of no. 3; he was slow in the beginning but picked up pace with Dhawan alongside. It seemed that Dhawan was at his best in the game. After the first 10 overs Kohli kept on rotating strikes by keeping the run rate steady and Dhawan was going for the shots. He managed to get his consecutive half-century in the 18th over. Dhawan also got a lifeline when he was dropped by Amla. India’s game was going smooth, until they got the second blow. Kohli got caught by Tahir when he was just four runs short of his half-century. India has 136 runs in 27 overs on the score board. In came Rahane who was in a mood to attack from the very first ball. He helped Dhawan to gain his pace and also took India to a score of 150 by 31 overs.

Today’s victory would have been impossible without the tight bowling of Indian bowlers. To secure some early wickets, this was the job given by captain cool to Shami, Mohit and co. Amla got in the trap by Mohit Sharma’s shot ball and got caught. After he got out, next came in the skipper AB de Villiers. AB and Faf tried to settle and started making runs by rotating singles and kept South Africa’s run rate as steady as possible. But a sudden blow was given to South Africa again by Mohit Sharma when his brilliant throw resulted in the run out of AB. Soon Faf also got out to Mohit, and the proteas were 133 for the loss of four wickets at the end of 29th over.

Proper batsmen left in the lineup were Duminy and Miller. Duminy’s wicket was taken by Ashwin. Miller’s wicket was the fourth run out of the match. After them the rest of the tail-enders were cleared by Shami and Ashwin. After that it was only a matter of time, and India recorded their first humongous victory of 130 runs against South Africa in a WC game.

Tags: Ajinkya Rahane, CWC 2015, ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, India, Shikhar Dhawan, South Africa, World Cup