Dhoni in ODI #75

India vs South Africa, Future Cup 2007 - 2nd ODI
Date: 29 Jun 2007

Catches : 1 / Stumpings : 0
Batting: 0 runs (4 balls), 4s: 0/ 6s: 0

The Indians limped to a nail-biting win in the second one-dayer to square the series at 1-1. Dhoni was back in action, but he chose not to disturb the scorers much. He donned the gloves and the vice-captaincy for the first time. But, it is a match in which there is only one hero, Sachin Tendulkar.

Sachin might have missed his century once more, by just seven runs, but he reached another milestone in this match. Yes, he crossed the 15000 runs mark. More interestingly, today Sachin as authoritative as he would be in his glorious days. Great shots were unveiled on both sides of the wickets. Some of the great attacking shots, to send the ball soaring out of the stadium, brought back memories of the little-boy genius Sachin.

Chasing a moderate victory target of 227 runs, the Indians had their fair share of anxious moments. From a comfortable position of 134/0, they slipped to 142/4. With Yuvraj Singh unable to score even singles consistently, the required run rate started to climb up slowly. While Karthik could ably rotate the strike, he is unable to display some big shots. Fortunatley, for India, Yuvraj brought some hugh hits at the fag end of the innings to reach the target in the final over. Yuvarj's first 33 runs took 55 deliveries, whereas the last 16 runs came off jsut 8 deliveries. That made the difference in the end.

Result: South Africa 226/6 (Van Wyk 82, Boucher 55) in 50 overs lost to India 227/4 (Sachin 93) in 49.1 overs. Sachin was declared the man of the match.

Next match to look far: 1 July 2007, 3rd ODI between India and South Africa.