India hang onto 14-run win over Proteas

Tags: IND v SA 5th Match at St Lucia - May 2, 2010, ICC World T20 - 2010, India, South Africa, Suresh Kumar Raina

Published on: May 10, 2010

Scorecard | Commentary | Graphs

India defeated South Africa by 14 runs in the Group C Match at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia.

India defeated South Africa by 14 runs in the Group C Match at the Beausejour Stadium in St Lucia. The match was set up in India's favour by Suresh Raina who had changed the match on its head with a spectacular century which batted SA out of the match even before their innings got underway! Chasing a difficult 187 for a win, the Proteas batsmen could never get going on the slowish track and were never in the race. India had some tense moments towards the end but luckily got crucial wickets to win the game.

South Africa finished a distant second at 172 for 5 with most of the runs coming only towards the end of their innings and that too very late. Opener Jacques Kallis had a slow fifty though he ended up with a better looking 73 from 54 balls (with 3 fours and 3 sixes). He put on 97 runs for the second wicket with Graeme Smith (36 from 28 balls) and the partnership was certainly on the slower side leaving plenty to get from very few balls towards the end.

Towards the end, India was under pressure when the sixes started to fly in all directions. With MS Dhoni persisting with spinners mostly, SA still had a slight chance of causing an upset. Luckily for India, they got the equation to 24 runs needed to win from the final over. AB de Villiers gave them a scare with his 15-ball 31 (which included three sixes). The pick of the bowlers were Ashish Nehra (4-0-27-1) and Harbhajan Singh (4-0-33-0). As many as five spinners were used by MS Dhoni.

Suresh Raina was the obvious choice for the Man of the Match having blasted a maiden T20I hundred.

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