AB de Villiers and Jacques Kallis hit contrasting centuries to build on the platform laid by the openers Hashim Amla and Loots Bosman to charge South Africa to an imposing 365 which proved beyond the reach of the inexperienced Indian batting line-up in the third ODI in Ahmedabad. Bosman was feisty, Amla was elegant, de Villiers was destructive and Kallis and well … Kallis – solid as ever. Together, the top order blasted South Africa to their highest score against India and helped avoid a clean sweep.

It was de Villiers who played the most aggressive knock of the innings and it showcased his skill in picking gaps. The pitch was flat and India populated the on side, be it for spin or seam, and tried to force him to make mistakes while going for inside-out drives but he never erred. The bat swing was clean, the head was still and for the main part, he was looking to off drive and when the bowlers tried to cramp him with the alteration in line, he pinged the on side with five fours and two sixes.

It was simple in its thought and complex in its execution but he pulled it off without seemingly breaking into a sweat. The best shot was probably a nonchalant inside-out lofted cover drive against Ravindra Jadeja, though there were two really sweetly timed peachy off drives off Sreesanth that stood out for its classy elegance. He reached his hundred with a six and a four off Rohit Sharma in the final over of the innings.

While de Villiers indulged himself right from the start, it was Kallis who provided the necessary glue to hold the innings together in the middle overs. It was a typical Kallis innings; you didn’t remember a stand-out shot in the first half of his knock and yet, he had reached his fifty from 68 balls with just one boundary. He dealt in nudges, pushes and gentle drives as he ensured South Africa held wickets intact for the fun in the end. As expected, he opened-up post fifty to muscle quite a few boundaries and overran de Villiers in the end with some clean hits. In the penultimate over, he crashed Sreesanth to the straight boundary before lifting him imperiously over long-off to bring up a very well-paced hundred.

Before the de Villiers and Kallis show, it was a tango between Amla and Bosman that set up South Africa for the big total. If Amla applied the calm touch, Bosman provided the initial momentum at the top of the innings with a fiery cameo. If you had to pick a word to catch the spirit of Bosman’s innings, it would have to be thump. It was filled with several crunchy blows but what really caught the eye was that he never went across the line. There were 11 boundaries in all but his first boundary, perhaps, was the sweetest of them all. He was just on 1 and the confidence to go for the big aerial hits hadn’t yet sunk in and he just leaned forward to play a gorgeously timed on-the-up drive past Sreesanth.

If Bosman thumped, Amla was all wristy elegance. He seemingly wristed even those on-the-up punchy shots through the off side where other batsmen would have used their arm a lot more but his best shot was a flicked boundary off Sreesanth – it was a short-of-length delivery on the off stump but Amla used the length to wrist it to the square-leg boundary. Unlike in the last ODI where the stiff target didn’t allow him to pace his innings properly, he showed better judgement today: he sensed Bosman’s confidence was on the rise and started to rotate the strike around and when Bosman fell, he realised he had to stay on for a big innings and started to work the angles for the singles.

For their part India realised that pace, especially considering their inexperienced seamers, was not the way to go on this track and relied on the slow bowlers. But the inexperience of the attack proved too costly in the end. And when they chased, they could never get the momentum required to hunt down such a big target.

The ball stopped occasionally on the dry pitch in the second half and the bowling was disciplined, without looking overtly threatening, but the pressure of the big target induced the mistakes from the inexperienced batting line-up. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma lifted India from 40 for 2 with a 95-run partnership but the run rate was slow. Roelf van der Merwe combined with Morne Morkel and Johan Botha to slip in a slew of tight overs and both batsmen couldn’t break free. The run rate climbed and Dale Steyn used the resultant pressure to take out a couple of wickets. Though Suresh Raina later threw his bat around to collect a few boundaries, India were never really in the chase.

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at Cricinfo.

It went down to the last ball but when Jacques Kallis fell in the 43rd over, with South Africa requiring an improbable 74 from 43 balls and only two wickets in hand, it looked like game, set and match to India. From there, Dale Steyn and Wayne Parnell threatened to pull of an incredible heist but India held their nerve to clinch a final-ball win in Jaipur.

The quality of cricket was actually below-par from both sides – India’s bowling threatened to completely disintegrate under the pressure and barring Kallis, South Africa’s batting was quite dismal – but the contest was made memorable by the tailenders Steyn and Parnell. This is how it panned out in the end: Steyn lashed two straight sixes in the 46th over bowled by Suresh Raina, the pair pinched three boundaries in the 48th over bowled by an errant Sreesanth and when both batsmen struck audacious sixes down the ground against Ashish Nehra in the 49th over, South Africa required only 10 from the last over.

Praveen Kumar bowled Steyn with a slower one off the second delivery but the drama wasn’t over yet. Charl Langeveldt pulled the penultimate delivery to long leg where Sachin Tendulkar dived full-stretch to prevent the boundary. Many replays later, the third umpire ruled it a legal save and South Africa had to be content with three runs but had the well-set Parnell on strike for the last delivery. More excitement lay ahead as Praveen hurled a wide leaving South Africa needing three to win. Parnell squeezed out the final delivery to third man where Sreesanth fielded the ball cleanly and threw in a slightly wide throw but MS Dhoni had enough time to break the stumps with Parnell just one yard short of levelling the scores.

Until those dramatic end overs where India threatened to choke, they had actually done most things necessary to win the game. No batsman got a big score, but there were enough handy contributions from the top-order to push India to a strong 298. No bowler got more than two wickets but there was enough combined discipline in the attack, till they crumbled under the Steyn & Parnell show, to restrict South Africa.

For their part, South Africa might have come very close in the end but the stand-in captain Jacques Kallis was the only top-order batsman to offer any resistance in the chase where Ravindra Jadeja starred for India with his unspectacular but steady spell of left-arm spin where he used the arm-ball quite liberally to keep the batsmen honest. When Jadeja came on to bowl South Africa were sitting pretty at 60 for 1 from nine overs. When he finished his first spell that read 8-2-23-2, and included the vital wickets of Herschelle Gibbs and AB de Villiers, South Africa had slowed down to 127 for 3 from 24 overs.

He didn’t get the ball to turn but repeatedly slipped the one that went straight on with the arm to suffocate the batsmen. The ball also tended to skid on in this surface and at times kept a touch low and the batsmen struggled to put away his armers. He lured Gibbs to slice to long-off and troubled both Kallis and de Villiers with his skidding deliveries. de Villiers tried to wriggle free with an attempted cut shot that proved fatal as he completely failed to connect.

From then on South Africa were always chasing their own tail despite Kallis’ effort and though Steyn and Parnell played the one-day innings of their lives, they fell short in the end.

Like South Africa, India too didn’t have any centurion today but, unlike the visitors, there were enough contributions to charge them to a strong score. On a day when Virender Sehwag played a couple of typically stunning shots – a slashed six over third man and another flamboyantly carved over covers being the picks – two innings, from men who are yet to secure their spots in the playing eleven, caught the eye. Karthik’s entertaining 44 and Raina’s attractive 58 stood out for their sparkling shots, and also for their untimely dismissals. Both fell when they were well-set and had the opportunity to take India to an unassailable position.

India were at 32 for the loss of Tendulkar in seven overs when Karthik started to go for his shots. Until then, he was playing the conventional strokes and even timing them well but was unable to find the gaps.

Everything changed in the eighth over bowled by Parnell. The first ball, a short of a length delivery outside off stump, was flat-batted – a forehand cross-court swat – over the bowler’s head. Off the third delivery, he walked down the track to upset the line and length and whipped through midwicket for another boundary and a pull off the fifth delivery fetched him a couple before he collected another pulled boundary off the last ball.

Karthik continued to innovate and play the big shots – a slog-swept six against Johan Botha being the highlight – before he fell. This ability to manufacture shots and pull out the big hits irrespective of the match situation has been his strength and weakness. Shot selection hasn’t always been his strong point but it looked like today was going to be his day until he was dismissed against the run of play, mistiming a pull shot off Langeveldt straight to mid-on.

Raina took over after Karthik’s exit, starting off with a delightful, on-the-up, cover-driven boundary off Albie Morkel, and handled himself well against the short stuff from Kallis. The pitch was a flat beauty and there wasn’t great pace or bounce to cause any trouble and Raina collected boundaries with upper cuts and a couple of pull shots. He went on to heave a back-of-length delivery from Parnell over wide long-on boundary but in the 44th over, with India on 260 for 6, he moved away from the stumps to try an expansive inside-out drive over the covers, only to edge Kallis behind the wicket.

It was left to the tail to push India towards 300, which proved more than enough in the end courtesy a fine spell from Jadeja. Kallis carried on gamely with a characteristic innings but he received no support from his team-mates: Mark Boucher edged a slightly wide delivery, Alviro Petersen was run out as he failed to ground his bat, and both Morkel and Botha fell playing across the line. Kallis dealt in singles initially, put away most of the bad balls, and tried to manufacture a few big shots in the end overs but the stiff target proved too much for him to pull off a one-man-show. Steyn and Parnell nearly pulled off the improbable but couldn’t complete a fairy-tale finish.

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at Cricinfo.

They couldn’t out Hashim Amla at all. So India, down to three bowlers and led by an exceptional Harbhajan Singh, found a way around him, leaving him stranded with nine mandatory balls to go and sealing a heart-stopping, series-levelling win that also meant they retained the top spot in the ICC rankings. As was fitting, it was Harbhajan who brought about the final wicket with a slider to the left-hand batsman Morne Morkel, who had put together a 76-minute last-wicket stand with Amla. The final few steps didn’t come easy for India: the last three wickets batted out 53.3 overs to set up a beautiful Test-match finish.

For eight hours and 19 minutes in this innings, which took to 23 hours and 22 minutes the total time he’s spent at the wicket for the series, Amla saw everything: offbreaks, topspinners, unintended doosras, big legbreaks, googlies, bouncers, full ones, a blow to the elbow, the bowlers’ joy, their frustration, and Harbhajan’s eruption on taking the last wicket. At every stage – when he reached fifty or his hundred, when he was hurt, when he was concentrating, when he was defending, during those final few overs of counting each delivery down, and when he was walking back after one of the biggest disappointments he has experienced on a cricket field – the calm expression on his face was unchanged.

Amla batted like the Monk who didn’t need to sell a Ferrari, and it took a special bowling effort to deny his side the series win. Harbhajan answered India’s call with spin bowling aggressive and patient, smart and persistent, and came up with that wicket-taking delivery when it had deserted the other bowlers.

If Amla never looked like getting out, Harbhajan never looked like letting anyone settle. India had 98 overs to get seven wickets but 52.2 of them were a write-off: they were bowled to Amla, and this man was not going to get out. Not today. They did well, though, to create enough pressure in the remaining overs – despite two dropped catches – to finish off the match with 16 minutes remaining in the day’s play.

India woke up to a bright and sunny day, but were thwarted in the first session by Amla and Ashwell Prince. For about two hours, Amla kept killing their hopes, Prince kept raising them only to not edge to hand. Finally, just when the draw started to become the favoured result, Harbhajan came back for his second spell of the day, from his favoured High Court End.

In the first spell, he had tried to get Prince lbw in a fashion similar to the one in the first innings, and failed. In his second he went over the stumps and made it difficult for Prince to judge which deliveries to leave. The leg line troubled Prince, and finally he jabbed at one outside off and lobbed it to mid-off.

Amit Mishra once again produced the special delivery out of nowhere, this time a googly to take out AB de Villiers in the penultimate over before the lunch break, the third time he had taken a wicket just before a break in the innings. de Villiers’ was the big wicket because he was the one batsman capable of using his feet and hitting spinners off their length.

In the second spell, six overs each either side of lunch, Harbhajan looked menacing with almost every delivery. After lunch, Harbhajan went on to suggest JP Duminy might become his new Ponting. Offbreak, offbreak, slider. Duminy caught in front again. Dale Steyn didn’t have a clue about deliveries spinning down the leg side, and kept getting beaten. Harbhajan smartly moved round the stumps, and trapped him too.

Thereafter Amla found an able partner in Parnell, who looked much more assured than Steyn, and helped by a dropped catch by Suresh Raina at a wide fourth slip, played out 24.2 overs. Amla manipulated the strike well: out of eight overs that Harbhajan bowled during that stand, Parnell got away by facing only 12 balls from the best bowler around.

A soft shot befitting a No. 9 arrived duly, after which Amla shielded Paul Harris for a while. From facing four balls of each over, he gradually let Harris face three each, and by the time Harris generated enough confidence in Amla, a soft shot befitting a No. 10 came by. Ishant got both the wickets, but 8.3 more overs had been negated.

That started the most exciting period of the match. Morkel batted solidly along with Amla, they both judged the leaves well, they both defended with soft hands, they both frustrated India more with every passing delivery. Towards the end, mind games began. Amla took a single late in a Mishra over to face Harbhajan in the next over, Dhoni removed Harbhajan and tried the part-time stuff from Sachin Tendulkar and Sehwag, and got Harbhajan to bowl at Morkel again.

Nothing gave. Amla seemed to have found a partner who was holding his nerve well. The desperation on Indian faces kept getting more and more apparent with every passing delivery. With 3.2 overs to go, Amla cut Tendulkar towards the boundary, took a single so as to face two more overs as opposed to one. Sehwag hoped it would reach the boundary as he chased, but slyly tried to kick it over when he saw it stop inches before the rope. Just to keep Morkel on strike. That’s how much it mattered.

Amla duly played out the next over, Dhoni duly saved Harbhajan for the over after that. Harbhajan had six more balls left, from the High Court End. The first pitched middle, turned away. The second pitched leg, and broke towards off. The third was the killer slider, Morkel made his first mistake in 60 deliveries. Harbhajan roared, Amla’s expression didn’t change much.

Sidharth Monga is a staff writer at Cricinfo.

Rain and Hashim Amla frustrated India’s bid for a series-levelling victory in the second and final test against South Africa on Wednesday.

Only 34.1 overs were possible on a fourth day severely interrupted by bad light and rain, raising the tourists’ hopes of saving the test.

South Africa were 115-3 at the close, still 232 behind, but with seven wickets in hand have a good chance of seeing out the last day.

They hold a 1-0 lead and are bidding to win their first series on Indian soil for a decade and leapfrog the hosts at the top of the world rankings.

South Africa lost the key wicket of Jacques Kallis (20) to leg-spinner Amit Mishra just minutes before the rain came down.

In-form Amla had battled to 45 not out when tea was taken early. Ashwell Prince had yet to get off the mark.

Only one over was possible after tea before bad light forced the suspension of play for a second time after the start had been delayed by 93 minutes due to overnight rain.

South Africa, resuming on six without loss, lost both openers either side of lunch before Amla, who scored centuries in his two previous outings, frustrated India in forging a partnership of 57 with Kallis.

Earlier, Mishra made the initial breakthrough with the score on 36 when he struck with his first ball to dismiss skipper Graeme Smith (20) two overs before lunch.

Off-spinner Harbhajan Singh then dismissed first innings centurion Alviro Petersen, when the test debutant was caught at short leg for 21.

Amla, who was lucky to escape when dropped by Murali Vijay at backward shortleg off Harbhajan on 14, and Kallis batted cautiously before Mishra struck again immediately after he was brought back into the attack by taking the wicket of Kallis.

Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Vangipurappu Laxman and Mahendra Singh Dhoni had all compiled centuries to put India in control, with the hosts having declared on 643-6.

South Africa made 296 in their first innings.

Source: Yahoo News

VVS Laxman (143) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni (132) slammed sparkling unbeaten centuries to compound South Africa’s misery as India took a stranglehold of the second and final Test with a mammoth 347-run first innings lead on Tuesday.

Laxman notched up his 15th Test ton while Dhoni recorded his fourth as the hosts piled up a monumental 643 for six, their highest total against South Africa, before declaring their first innings about half an hour before close of play on the third day.

The visitors got to face just five balls and were six for no loss before bad light forced play to be stopped early on a day completely dominated by the home team.

Laxman and Dhoni gave a fine exhibition of strokeplay as they stitched a record 259-run partnership for the seventh wicket to put India in a commanding position from where they can push for a series-levelling victory.

With two days left and the Eden track expected to deteriorate, the Proteas are faced with a herculean task to save the game.

Resuming at the overnight score of 342 for five, the hosts lost nightwatchman Amit Mishra (28) before Laxman, who has produced some of his classy knocks at the Eden, and captain Dhoni virtually batted the visitors out of the contest.

Both the experienced batsmen paced their innings brilliantly and the score of 643 for six turned out to be India’s highest-ever total against South Africa, eclipsing the previous best of 628 at Chennai in 2008.

The vociferous crowd at the Eden was treated to some scintillating strokeplay for the second day running as Laxman and Dhoni toyed with the clueless South African bowlers to consolidate the position for India.

The Proteas had to take some of the blame for finding themselves in such a position as they dropped a few catches and the bowlers also lacked the penetration after the second new ball wore out.

If India manage to win the Test, they will retain their number one position in the ICC Test rankings. However, if the South Africans draw the match and clinch the series 1-0, they will dislodge India from the number one position.

The day began with nightwatchman Mishra hitting a quick-fire 38-ball 28 to put on a 48-run sixth wicket partnership with Laxman.

Dropped on five by Jacques Kallis in the slip, Mishra took the attack to the Proteas camp. With Laxman displaying control at the one end, Mishra took on the pace of Steyn and the slow spin of Paul Harris to help India build on the lead.

Hoping for some reverse swing from Kallis, Smith delayed taking the new ball by four overs as Mishra played with aggression.

Mishra once again got a life when he was dropped by Smith (short extra-cover) while on 25.

Mishra’s innings was ended by pacer Dale Steyn in the very next over when he was caught by Kallis at the second slip.

Laxman was slow in his approach and had luck on his side when he edged one to the left of an outstretched AB de Villiers who failed to pouch it.

Dhoni joined Laxman in the middle for the seventh wicket as India continued scoring briskly taking a 100-run lead over South Africa in the 93rd over.

Dhoni and Laxman milked the South African attack at ease with the skipper attacking Harris, charging one down over long-off for a six.

Both Laxman and Dhoni cashed in on the lacklustre fielding efforts by the visitors and made full use of the dropped chances, building up a mammoth stand for the seventh wicket.

With local hero and former captain Sourav Ganguly in the stands, Laxman completed his century to continue his love affair at the Eden, where he played his best knock of 281 against Australia in 2001.

Earlier Dhoni was lucky when on 27 Kallis failed to get hold of the ball at first slip as Harris shouted in frustration, summing up the agony of South Africa.

Both Dhoni and Laxman accelerated the pace of scoring after notching up their centuries.

Source: Times of India

The Sehwag storm struck South Africa with full force and pretty much blew everything in its way to a 13th 150-plus score. Amid the mayhem, it was easy to forget the cool, pleasant breeze that was Sachin Tendulkar’s 92nd international century – his fourth in four Tests. They added 249 runs for the third wicket and kept South Africa wicketless for 57.4 overs but, once the two quietened, South Africa struck back with three quick wickets to retrieve some of the momentum in the match.

Sehwag rattled them with a vicious assault on the new ball, put behind him the Gautam Gambhir run-out and, after a brief quiet, punished them some more. His 87-ball hundred would have been even faster but for a relative lull of 10 off 21 balls. Tendulkar enjoyed playing in the shadow of Sehwag’s strike-rate, kept scoring at an even pace and, unlike Sehwag, didn’t give South Africa a single chance.

Two critical moments in the first session determined the flow of the game. Sehwag – 43 off 21 then – had the fastest Test fifty and a few other records in sight when he ran Gambhir out, and he chastised himself by playing disciplined cricket for a while. Around the same time Morne Morkel indulged in some reverse-rattling, took out M Vijay, troubled Sehwag with accurate bouncers and induced an edge only to see JP Duminy – at first slip because of the finger injury to Graeme Smith – drop him on 47. Sehwag could have gone at an even more frenetic rate but for the run-out. South Africa could have been in control had Sehwag fallen then.

Sehwag’s onslaught started when Dale Steyn failed to get any swing. Somehow the ball didn’t come out right, the seam wobbled, and Nagpur was a distant memory. When there is no swing, Steyn’s pace is his biggest enemy so today the faster they came the faster they went. Nor did he get the Morkel’s bounce, which meant that when Steyn went for the ribs, Sehwag could easily flick it past midwicket.

The storm started with that gentle little flick and then came three boundaries in three balls in the third over: placed over point, whipped to square leg, and slashed past point. Morkel got the treatment in his third over too: three boundaries through the off side, one off a delivery that clocked 152.6kmph. Wayne Parnell replaced Morkel immediately, and immediately he was carved for a four and a six into the rubble of a stand under reconstruction.

The next ball Sehwag faced he hit an off-drive for four, and then came the run-out. It was time for drinks and Sehwag threw away his protective gear in disgust. That was when Morkel came back but his charged-up, accurate burst seemed to have ended with that dropped chance.

When Sehwag came back from lunch, the cautious approach had been thrown out and he was blazing away again. For company he had Tendulkar. If you were a bowler, there was nowhere to hide.

Sehwag showed that to Steyn early in his second spell. Punch, whip, steer, 10 runs off three deliveries. Steyn to Sehwag then: 11 balls, 25 runs, five boundaries. Tendulkar joined the fun, defending everything full but steering Steyn for two boundaries. Paul Harris, meanwhile, didn’t have the luxury of a big score, bowled round the stumps, and was slog-swept and hit inside out by Sehwag for a six and a four.

Back came Morkel, the best bowler on the day, to be given the worst sort of treatment a best bowler can be given. This time Tendulkar took the lead. Two fullish deliveries, two clips to the on side, one to the left of square leg, one to the right. In his next over, he gave Sehwag width with three deep fielders on the off side. One to the left of deep point, and one to the right. Sehwag 89 off 72, Tendulkar 38 off 61. India were 165 for 2 in 30.2 overs, with the bonus of South Africa’s two best bowlers negated.

In between the hard-hitting there was some toying, with paddles from outside off, reverse-sweeps, clips past midwicket as Sehwag reached his hundred and Tendulkar his fifty without further incident. Harris eventually started bowling over the wicket, and was called wide 12 times because, unlike in Nagpur, he was not looking to get wickets here.

The runs slowed down post tea. When Sehwag was 128, AB de Villiers, the replacement keeper, missed an easy stumping. By the time Duminy made good his mistake, getting Sehwag in his first over, it might just have been too late. Not quite. Harris went round the wicket in the next over – inexplicably it took him until the Sehwag dismissal to do so – and got a false shot out of Tendulkar.

Steyn came back right away, got his swing back, and beat S Badrinath in the man-versus-boy contest. VVS Laxman struggled to fight the momentum and edged Harris in the next over. It flew wide of slip, the light deteriorated and India ended the day retaining the upper hand despite that late South African surge.

Sidharth Monga is a staff writer at Cricinfo

Indian spearhead Zaheer Khan triggered a sensational South Africa collapse after in-form Hashim Amla and debutant Alviro Petersen hit centuries on the opening day of the final test on Sunday.

Left-arm Zaheer dismissed both the century-makers in his fourth spell before off-spinner Harbhajan Singh weaved a magical web at one of his lucky venues as the tourists lost their last seven wickets for 48 runs.

South Africa, bidding for a first series victory in almost a decade after taking a 1-0 lead in the two-match series, were struggling at 266 for nine at the close after being confidently placed at 218 for two at one stage.

The last wicket pair of Wayne Parnell and Morne Morkel were at the crease when play was first suspended due to bad light before being called off.

Amla struck 114 and Petersen made exactly 100, the second wicket pair putting on 209 after the tourists opted to bat first following a morale-boosting victory by an innings and six runs in the opening test at Nagpur.

Zaheer, who dismissed opener Graeme Smith for four early in the innings, sent back Petersen and Amla either side of tea as India clawed their way back into the game they need to win to hold on to the number one ranking.

Zaheer took both those wickets in a spectacular six-over spell to lift India’s spirits after being tormented by Petersen and Amla, who scored 253 not out in the first test.

Harbhajan found the form that had eluded him for a while as he dismissed Jacques Kallis and then Ashwell Prince and JP Duminy lbw off successive deliveries before Dale Steyn denied him a hat-trick.

AB de Villiers fell run out to a direct hit by Zaheer before Paul Harris edged pacer Ishant Sharma behind to be wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s third victim of the innings and leg-spinner Amit Mishra had Steyn lbw.

South Africa skipper Smith fell to a beauty — bowled through the gap between bat and pad — after deciding to play despite a painful finger injury.

Amla and Petersen came together and produced a fine partnership.

The 29-year-old Petersen was handed a test debut after wicketkeeper Mark Boucher was ruled out of the match with a back injury. AB de Villiers will keep wicket in his place.

Petersen hit 16 fours as he flicked, pulled and drove India’s seamers and used his feet nicely to the spinners.
Petersen continued with his exciting strokeplay and, although he got bogged down in the 90s, finally got his reward when he reached his century with a single off Mishra.

Amla was lucky to be dropped at 60 by Vangipurappu Laxman at slip, but he quickly recovered his composure and brought up his century with a cover drive to the boundary off Ishant.

Source: Yahoo News

Talking about the two-match series which starts in Nagpur on Sunday, Harbhajan said it would have been good to have the injured trio around but the team can still deliver the goods against Graeme Smith’s men.

“Of course it would have been good to have them. But whatever players we have got, they are good and have done well in the Ranji session. Hopefully they will continue their good form against South Africa as well,” the spinner said.

Dravid is nursing a fractured cheek bone, Yuvraj has a tear in his wrist while Sreesanth is out with a hamstring injury — all sustained during India’s recent Bangladesh tour.

South Africa captain Graeme Smith has announced that his team would leave no stone unturned to regain the number one Test team’s tag from India and Harbhajan also felt that it would be an intense affair between world’s top two teams.

“Well, only time will tell who would come out on top. We haver full respect to every opposition but if we play to our potentials, we can beat any one,” Harbhajan said.

“Obviously when top two teams play each other, there has to be intense competition. You have to admit that South Africa is a very good Test side. But if we play to our potential and on our ability, we can beat any side — be it South Africa, Australia or any other team. That is our biggest strength,” he said.

South Africa 130 for 5 (de Villiers 63) beat India 118 for 8 (Rohit 29, Botha 3-16, Steyn 2-25) by 12 runs…

South Africa tonight booked a semi-final return to Trent Bridge with a fifth successive ICC World Twenty20 victory as defending champions India drew a Super Eights blank.

India were already out of the equation after their defeat against England at Lord’s on Sunday.

But if their millions of supporters were hoping for a winning response against the tournament favourites in Nottingham, they were disappointed again as their heroes could muster only 118 for eight to lose by 12 runs to the batting of AB de Villiers (63) and then a collective effort from South Africa’s slow bowlers.

India, who had no answer to a barrage of short balls from England at the weekend, faltered this time as spin increasingly dominated and dictated events.

On a pitch which helped the slow bowlers all day – Ajantha Mendis held the key for Sri Lanka against New Zealand this afternoon – South Africa’s exponents were superior.

Their combined spin-bowling figures were 9-0-32-5, to India’s 14-0-75-4 – and that was more than enough to decide the outcome and ensure Graeme Smith’s men will face Pakistan here in the last four on Thursday.

After restricting their opponents to 130 for five thanks to a hard-working performance in the field, India were exactly up with the early run-rate established by their opponents – on 47 for none at the end of the six overs of powerplay.

But it was at that point Smith turned to the off-spin of Johan Botha (3-16) for the first time, and with only his second delivery he had Gautam Gambhir caught at extra cover.

Four wickets then fell for 14 runs in 28 balls as a succession of batsmen failed to deal with spin on and pace off the ball at both ends.

Even the big-hitting Yuvraj Singh, dropped on nought when he offered a return catch to off-spinner JP Duminy, could not make the difference, and by the time he went caught behind off fast bowler Dale Steyn in the 19th over, the game was up.

After winning the toss, South Africa began the contest by losing Herschelle Gibbs to an under-edged pull on to his stumps off RP Singh in the second over, and Smith followed in the ninth when he holed out in the leg-side off Harbhajan Singh.

De Villiers found near immediate fluency, but South Africa still lost a little momentum as they added only 21 runs between the five and 10-over mark.

Their number three struck Yuvraj over extra-cover for his team’s first boundary in nine overs, and added a second – his sixth in all – wide of long-on from the very next delivery to bring up a 41-ball half-century.

Despite the departure of Duminy, stumped after missing some turn from occasional left-arm orthodox Suresh Raina, De Villiers tried to up the ante, and when he skied a return catch back to Ravindra Jadeja he had made significantly more than half his team’s 110 for four.

South Africa managed to add only 32 in the last five overs. But India always seemed unlikely to have an easy chase in the prevailing conditions, and so it proved.

South Africa 183 for 7 (Gibbs 55, Kallis 45, Taylor 3-30) beat West Indies 163 for 9 (Simmons 77, Parnell 4-13) by 20 runs…

There is only one team that can beat South Africa in this kind of form and at The Oval, West Indies weren’t one of them. On a true, hard pitch, Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis led South Africa to 183 against an attack understandably drained from a second game in less than 24 hours. An unspectacular, solid bowling performance from Wayne Parnell and Roelof van der Merwe then spiked West Indies’ chase, rendering Lendl Simmons’ fine hand futile. Parnell picked up four wickets to leave West Indies short by 20 runs, South Africa with a record-breaking sixth consecutive T20I win and a semi-final spot all but sealed.

The South African juggernaut threatened to march mercilessly on at The Oval, before a late, late fightback from West Indies kept them, on a true, hard pitch, to within reasonable distance. Contributions from Herschelle Gibbs and Jacques Kallis led South Africa to 183 for 7, but it threatened for much of the innings to be significantly more. That it wasn’t, was due mostly to a fine finish from Jerome Taylor and Fidel Edwards; 45 from the last five overs is reasonable for a batting side, but West Indies will take it as a victory of sorts given what had gone before.

For 15 overs South Africa barely broke sweat against a West Indian attack understandably drained from last night’s efforts against India. They marched along at comfortably over eight an over, a bundle of wickets in hand, singles and doubles taking a back seat to a bucket-load of boundaries.

Matters appeared ominous from the very off for West Indies. As fierce as Taylor and Edwards had been against India, so they were meek today. Lengths in the first six overs were fuller, perhaps unnecessarily so. Graeme Smith and Kallis took toll, driving, pulling, cutting and whipping to a fifty partnership. It didn’t feel quite like a flood of boundaries at first, more a steady, inevitable trickle; ten boundaries and sixes came during the Powerplay on an outfield with less friction than an ice-skating rink.

Kallis contributed, inevitably, to the inevitability of things. Like someone on a first date, he never fully let himself go but impressed nonetheless. No one particular region was favoured, cover drives, pulls and cuts mixing freely. Some streaky shots were thrown in too, as if to prove finally that he can do this format. Six overs after his captain fell, he went too, for 45, having established himself as the tournament’s leading scorer. Until then, it had felt curiously like listening to Kraftwerk, the pioneering German electronica band: obviously admirable and very good but just so soulless, so automated.

Thank god then for Gibbs, who had set himself by the time Kallis fell and who brought a wonderfully uncontrolled contrast. Shots were manufactured – he paddle-swept Kieron Pollard for his first boundary in the seventh over before inside edging him for four again – and risks taken.

As spin replaced pace, Gibbs brought out his dancing shoes, smashing Chris Gayle straight down the ground and scything Suleiman Benn over point. He brought up the hundred in only the 12th over, on one knee smashing straight down the ground. Two overs later, Llendl Simmons was lofted twice, over midwicket for six and inside out for four. But having just reached a fifty the next over, when his impishness was at a fair peak, he was gone for 55.

That wicket let West Indies back into it when they had no right – at 136 for three from 15 – to get into it. Taylor and Edwards returned to the attack and to the ways of last night, mixing and matching both pace and length. Albie Morkel and AB de Villiers, who briefly threatened acceleration even when there scarcely seemed scope for more, both went in Taylor’s return over, the 17th. Taylor ended with three and though Edwards bowled a poor last over, on this pitch, West Indies will fancy the chase.

Osman Samiuddin is Pakistan editor of Cricinfo