Rohit, Kuldeep shine in maiden bilateral series win in SA

India registered their maiden bilateral series win in South Africa with a 73-run victory in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday (February 13). Set up by Rohit Sharma's 17th ODI ton earlier, India's bowlers managed to keep South Africa in check with Kuldeep Yadav finishing with a four-wicket haul.

Chasing 274 on a pitch that was gradually slowing down, South Africa were kept in the game largely by Hashim Amla's 71 but none of the other batsmen managed to give him support for long enough to mount a fight in the match.

Hardik Pandya turned out to be an unlikely star with the ball for India, picking the wickets of JP Duminy and AB de Villiers in quick succession after Jasprit Bumrah got the opening breakthrough. From then, it was only Amla who stood between India and victory. The opener battled on, trying to stitch together partnerships with David Miller (36) and Henrich Klaasen (39). But, his run out in the 35th over, by Pandya proved to be a blow that South Africa couldn't recover from.

And despite, Klaasen's late assault, India managed to wrap the innings with relative ease and registered their ninth consecutive bilateral series win in ODIs.

Playing a big part in the win was Rohit Sharma who was the latest in India's batting triumvirate at the top to be amongst the runs, as he brushed off an indifferent run of scores in this ODI series to get 115. But Sharma's 17th ODI ton was enough only to get India towards a big total. India's all-too-familiar problem of faltering at the finish cropped up once more, with Lungi Ngidi picking up three wickets in the final overs, including that of Rohit, to restrict India to just 274 for 7.

On a pitch that was expected to slow down, India started off in a hurry, seemingly in a bid to take toll of the hard new ball. Put in to bat, it was Shikhar Dhawan who set the tone for India. His breezy 23-ball 34 eased a lot of pressure on Rohit, who preferred not to take first strike in this match. But as the latter too got his eye in, he marked his return to form with a stunning six off Kagiso Rabada in the sixth over. Rabada had been Rohit's nemesis-in-chief all through this series, picking him three times out of four, but with that small mental battle won, Rohit was back to his comfort zone. India's openers raced towards a fifty-run stand but just two runs short of the mark, Dhawan fell to Rabada's short ball trap, pulling straight to deep backward square leg.

But that wicket did little to deter Rohit, who was now joined by the other man in form - Virat Kohli. The duo shared a steady 105-run stand for the second wicket without any attempts to be flashy. That partnership though could have ended a little earlier, had Kohli been adjudged out stumped on 29. But a close call was decided in the batsman's favour by Aleem Dar, but Kohli's luck ran out soon. The duo, who had batted so well until then, was involved in their seventh instance of a run out as a pair, with Kohli being caught well short to end his stay on 36. Rohit went on to turn his back on the next man in, Ajinkya Rahane, as well who was run out for 8. And it could have all turned even worse at that point for India, had Tabraiz Shamsi held on to a chance given by Rohit on 96.

Rohit went on to bring up a ton that was littered with cuts and pulls that were easy on the eye, and managed to add 60 more with Shreyas Iyer for the fourth wicket.

With 236 on the board by the 43rd over, India were looking at a total close to 300 but Lungi Ngidi triggered a collapse, having Rohit and Hardik Pandya caught behind off successive deliveries, before getting a well set Iyer in his next over. Ngidi went on to pick up MS Dhoni later in the innings as well, to negate India's bid to accelerate, keeping them down to a chaseable 274.

But as it proved to be, it was 73 too many for South Africa.

Brief Scores: India 274/7 in 50 overs (Rohit Sharma 115, Virat Kohli 36; Lungi Ngidi 4/51) beat South Africa 201 all out in 42.2 overs (Hashim Amla 71; Kuldeep Yadav 4/57) by 73 runs.