India 298 for 9 (Raina 58, Sehwag 46, Karthik 44, Kallis 3-29) beat South Africa 297 (Kallis 89) by one run.
Scorecard
India were coasting towards a convincing victory before a spirited late fightback from the South African tail made the home side sweat right upto the final delivery. A 65-run stand in 38 deliveries between Wayne Parnell and Dale Steyn for the ninth wicket revived South Africa in a game they had given up for dead. Steyn was bowled in the final over, but South Africa's last pair made it four needed off the final ball. Praveen Kumar bowled a wide to make it three off one; Parnell slashed the last legitimate ball to third man where Sreesanth fielded and threw the ball back to the wicketkeeper MS Dhoni, who broke the stumps with Parnell a yard short of salvaging a tie for South Africa. Such drama hardly looked on the cards when Jacques Kallis, South Africa's last remaining specialist batsman, fell for a patient 89 at the end of the 43rd over.
Ravindra Jadeja seized the initiative for India with a disciplined spell that slowed up the scoring rate and suffocated the batsmen after South Africa were set a target of 299. The South African innings seemed to follow the pattern of the Indian one as wickets fell every time they looked to get the chase back on track. They accelerated after a slow start but lost wickets, including the vital one of AB de Villiers in the 20th over, to lose some steam and much depended on Jacques Kallis at the half-way mark if South Africa were to pull off a victory here.
It was Jadeja who pushed India ahead with a unspectacular but steady spell of left-arm spin where he used the arm-ball quite liberally to keep the batsmen honest. He didn't get the ball to turn but time and again slipped the one that went straight on with the arm to suffocate the batsmen. The ball tended to skid on and at times kept a touch low and the batsmen struggled to put away his armers. He deceived Herschelle Gibbs in the flight and lured him 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.
South Africa ended that session in the same slow way they started it but they had their moments in the middle. It was the over from Sreesanth that turned things around for them who were dawdling on 21 at the end of five overs. Gibbs clipped through midwicket for two fours and picked a six with an imperious swing over midwicket boundary as Sreesanth went for 17 runs in his first over.
Until that Sreesanth over they were struggling to get going. Gibbs was going too hard at deliveries and not only survived a plausible shout for lbw against Praveen Kumar but also was lucky to escape after edging Ashish Nehra behind but the umpire didn't pick the deflection. Loots Bosman, the other opener, too was mistiming his shots but he slowly began to find his feet. However, both openers fell and once de Villiers exited, India held the advantage.
No batsman got a big score, but there were enough handy contributions from the top-order to push India to a strong score in the first ODI in Jaipur. It was one of those days when every time India threatened to get well ahead with a meaty partnership, South Africa clawed their way back with wickets.
There were three different phases of play when India looked to be charging ahead - Virender Sehwag and Dinesh Karthik's rollicking 79-run partnership for the second wicket, the serene 66-run stand between Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli in the middle overs and Raina's belligerence later in the innings - but South Africa struck back every single time. Still, 298 is a very good score, but the wicket is flat and much will depend on how much of a factor dew plays in the chase.
On a day when 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 Sachin 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 Wayne Parnell. The first delivery, 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. He 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. The shot selection hasn't always been his strong point but it looked like today was going to be his day when he fell against the run of play, mistiming a pull shot off Charl Langeveldt straight to mid-on.
Raina took over post Karthik's exit, starting off with a delightful, on-the-up, punchy cover-driven boundary off Albie Morkel, and handled himself well against the short stuff from Jacques 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, but only edged Kallis behind the wicket.
It was that kind of afternoon for India. Virender Sehwag too fell just when he was beginning to impose himself: he backed up too far at the non-striker's end and the ball clipped Langeveldt's hand to break the stumps with Sehwag out of the crease. It was another run-out that had given South Africa their first wicket when Herschelle Gibbs capitalized on confusion between Tendulkar and Sehwag, who had mistimed a cut to covers, to run out the former. MS Dhoni too made a comfortable start before he threw his wicket away, driving Kallis straight to mid-off. It was left to the tail to push India close to 300. It says something about the state of pitches in India that even such a big total can leave one feeling that the batsmen underperformed.
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