And They Choke Again

India pulled off an improbable victory against South Africa at the Bullring. Dhoni's men were clearly the second best side for the first 70 overs of the game but rallied back to snatch victory. It was a day where Dhoni couldn't put a foot wrong. He won the toss and chose to bat first. But, the Indian batsmen failed to utilise this oppurtunity to gain some confidence leading into the world cup.
The batsmen started off slowly as the conditions were overcast and the deck assisted seam movement. The three man pace attack of Tsotsobe, Morkel and Steyn quelled the Indians for runs with some disciplined bowling.

With Kohli, Tendulkar and Vijay back  in the hut, Yuvi and Dhoni had to start from scratch. The duo scored runs at a brisk pace and put up a stand of 83 runs. It was reminiscent of the many innings these two have played for India over the years, shepherding India out of critical situations. But the good work was followed by the fall of four quick wickets in the powerplay which restricted India to a paltry total of 190. The Indian lower middle order played poor and unreasonable shots which led to their downfall. Tsotsobe picked four again as the continued his good run of form in ODIs. His consistency, bounce,angle of attack and subtle seam movement makes him a difficult customer especially when you have mean bowlers like Steyn and Morkel complementing you.

The Proteas began their reply steadily thanks to Graeme Smith's ruthless batting. The South African captain
punished the bad balls and countered the seam movement well. Munaf Patel got Amla early but Colin Ingram and Smith got some quick runs and looked to play India out of the match. While Munaf Patel and Zaheer Khan stuck to their lengths, Ashish Nehra once again faltered. Pitching it up too often and was smashed around the park by Smith.

Dhoni then decided to bring in Harbhajan Singh in the 8th over and things changed as Smith and Ingram looked to play out Harbhajan's overs and this allowed India to come back in the game. First Harbhajan trapped Ingram and then a rejuvenated Nehra got one to move away from  AB De Villiers and take his edge.
Dhoni also got his slow part-timers into the fray. Soon, Duminy got himself caught at deep mid-on trying to slap a half tracker from Rohit Sharma. Yet at this stage, hopes of an Indian comeback looked dim as Smith kept scoring and he looked to guide South Africa till the end along with David Miller.

Around the 30-over mark, Dhoni reintroduced Khan and Patel and by the 34th over the pair were both back into the pavilion. Munaf bowled a well disguised slower delivery which Smith played on and Miller holed out pulling an offcutter from the experienced Zaheer. Botha was the next man to go as he was wrongly judged lbw off Zaheer. Despite a collapse, with Parnell at the crease, South Africa needed just four runs with two wickets in hand and were favorites. Dhoni got things right once again as Morkel hit the first ball of the 42nd over straight to Yusuf Pathan at point, who was just brought in the previous ball. With two runs away from victory, Parnell went for a similar shot as Morkel which was pouched by Yuvraj and it sparked wild celebrations from Team India.

Parnell on the other hand looked shell shocked. With another major competition coming up, this result means more than just a close game for South Africa. Certainly, it must have reminded Protea players and fans of the five letter ch-word which has plagued them for as long as one can remember. The albatross is still hanging around the neck and Smithwill now be desperate to kill it in his last home ODI Series as Captain.