February 16, 2018 by admin

Kohli smashes another ton as India beat SA by 8 wickets; win series 5-1

Centurion, February 16

India captain Virat Kohli smashed his 35th ODI ton as India beat South Africa by 8 wickets and won the series 5-1 in the sixth and final One-Day International, here on Friday.

In another dominant display, India outplayed the Proteas in all the departments. Batting first, South Africa made a below-par 204 which the Indian batsmen chased down in 32.1 overs.
Kohli broke yet another record when he became the first ever batsman to amass 500 runs in a bilateral ODI series, surpassing teammate Rohit Sharma.
He smashed three hundreds in the series, including in the final ODI, to lead from the front.
Sharma had collected 491 runs in the six-match home series against Australia in 2013-14.
Kohli also became the highest-scorer in a bilateral ODI series as captain, leaving behind the likes of Australian George Bailey (478 runs versus India in 2013-14), South African AB de Villiers (367 versus Pakistan in 2012-13 ), de Villiers (358 versus India in 2015-16) and New Zealand skipper Kane Willamson (346 versus Pakistan in 2014-15).

Earlier, young paceman Shardul Thakur made his first appearance in the series count with a four-wicket haul as India yet again choked the South African batsmen.
Thakur (4/52), playing in place of rested Bhuvneshwar Kumar, picked his best figures in ODI cricket in his third match.
Spinners Kuldeep Yadav (1/51) and Yuzvendra Chahal (2/38) finished with 33 wickets together in this six-match series.
Aiden Markram (24) and Hashim Amla (10) made another sedate start. Thakur was impressive in his first spell, even though Markram took him for two boundaries to start off proceedings.
Jasprit Bumrah (2/24) kept a check on the scoring with his guile at the other end. The duo added 23 runs for the opening wicket before Amla was caught behind, pulling down leg side off a short ball from Thakur.
The pacer struck for a second time within the first power-play as a clever change of pace foxed Markram completely and he simply chipped a catch to Shreyas Iyer at cover, who caught well for a change.
It brought AB de Villiers (30) and Khaya Zondo (54 runs) to the crease, and they rebuilt the innings with a 62-run partnership for the third wicket. They rotated the strike well and looked to be positive even against the spinners.
Zondo was even harsh on Chahal and smacked him for two sixes in an over. It was perhaps the liveliest session of batting from South Africa in this series, barring their late assault during the Pink ODI.
De Villiers and Zondo brought up their 50-partnership off 52 balls as the Proteas crossed 100 in the 19th over.
This is when things turned downwards again. Chahal bowled de Villiers in the 21st over as the batsman backed away and looked to make room. The breakthrough almost squeezed the scoring rate as the batsmen started eating up deliveries.
57 balls passed without a boundary and the scoring rate fell from 4.7/over to 4.27/over after de Villiers’ dismissal. In this passage of play, Zondo and Heinrich Klaasen (22) added only 30 runs off 58 balls.
Klaasen tried taking more risks but only managed to hit straight to Virat Kohli at short cover off Bumrah.
It became a quick double blow as Ferhaan Behardien (1) wasted his first outing in the series and holed out to third man off Thakur where Bumrah held a stunning catch.
South Africa had lost two wickets in the space of six balls and were reduced to 136 for five in the 32nd over. Chris Morris (4) further exasperated his dressing room as he holed out off Yadav in the deep two overs later.
Zondo and Andile Phehlukwayo (34) tried to bring some stability to the innings. In doing so, Zondo scored his maiden ODI half-century off 67 balls. He was out shortly afterwards, caught in the deep in a bid to slog Chahal.
Chris Morris threw his bat around and scored 20 off 19 balls, inclusive of two sixes, before he was out caught off Hardik Pandya (1-39). The all-rounder came up with another immaculate spell in keeping with his form in the latter half of the series.
Running out of partners, Phehlukwayo attacked the Indian bowling and managed to push the score past 200 in the 47th over, before he was last man out, returning a catch to Thakur.