India wallop Proteas to leave series in balance

South Africa suffered a potentially fatal blow to their chances of qualifying automatically for the 2023 World Cup when they lost the second one-day international against India by seven wickets at the JSCA International Stadium in Ranchi on Sunday.

Chasing a modest 279 for victory the home side was led to a comfortable victory by Shreyas Iyer (113*, 111 balls, 15x4) who scored his second ODI century and shared in a third wicket partnership of 161 with Ishan Kishan whose 93 came from just 84 balls with four fours and a bruising seven sixes, three each against Keshav Maharaj (7-0-45-0) and Anrich Nortje (8.5-0-60-0).

India finished on 282-3 to win with 4.1 overs to spare and square the three-match series at 1-1 after South Africa’s nin-run victory in the first game on Thursday.

Iyer preferred to keep the ball on the ground reaching his century with his 14th four from 103 balls in an exhibition of attacking stroke play and pacing on a placid pitch offering gentle turn but little seam movement.

"I must say that Ishan and Shreyas, the way they created that partnership was great to watch," said captain Shikhar Dhawan.

"The ball was coming on nicely but it was keeping low. So our plan was to take on the bowlers in the first ten overs. But once the dew came into the picture, it was skidding on."

Earlier, a pair of 70s from Reeza Hendricks and Aiden Markram and a third-wicket partnership of 129 helped South Africa post a modest total of 278-7 after choosing to bat first. At 169-2, the tourists were well placed for a total closer to 300 but both men fell at vital times in the middle overs when at least one needed to take innings deep with a big hundred.

Hendricks continued his excellent recent form accelerating to 74 from 76 balls with nine fours and a straight six against offspinner Washington Sundar before pulling a short ball from Mohammad Siraj straight to Shahbaz Ahmed on the deep midwicket boundary.

Markram, too, built his innings patiently to reach 79 from 89 balls with seven fours and a six before slapping an innocuous delivery from Sundar to Dhawan at cover. The look on the batter’s face was more disgust than disappointment.

Heinrich Klaasen also looked in excellent form with a pair of fours and sixes in his 30 from 26 balls but may have been overly optimistic in attempting to hit left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav ‘inside out’ over extra cover and, instead, lobbed an inside edge to mid on where Siraj hung onto a diving catch.

MORE INTENT FROM MALAN

David Miller, starved of the strike as the innings came to an end, struck the only two boundaries that South Africa managed in the final seven overs of the innings to finish unbeaten on 35 from 34 balls with four fours.

Siraj was at the forefront of a magnificent display of ‘death’ bowling from India’s seamers finishing with 3-38 from his 10 overs.

"I think we didn't expect the dew to play such a big part, that's why we opted to bat after we won the toss," South Africa's stand-in-skipper Maharaj said.

"But credit to Shreyas and Sanju. We expected it to get slower and lower but after 20 overs the pitch got better."

Earlier, Quinton de Kock (5) departed to his eighth delivery dragging an attempted cover drive against Siraj from wide outside off stump onto his stumps. Fellow opener Janneman Malan showed more intent than he did in the first match striking four boundaries in his 25 from 31 balls before debutant left-arm spinner Shahbaz trapped him lbw.

Regular captain Temba Bavuma and spinner Tabraiz Shamsi were both unwell on the morning of the match and were replaced by Hendricks and Bjorn Fortuin while Anrich Nortje took the place of Lungi Ngidi from the XI which started on Thursday.

The series decider takes place in Delhi on Tuesday with South Africa in a ‘must-win’ situation in order to avoid the secondary qualification tournament in Harare in June next year.

INDIA: Shikhar Dhawan (capt), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson (wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Avesh Khan

SOUTH AFRICA: Janneman Malan, Quinton de Kock (wk), Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Wayne Parnell, Keshav Maharaj (capt), Bjorn Fortuin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje