Feb 18th, 2010 (Kolkata) – The Indian cricket team will be on No.1 ranking in Tests with this win on South Africa. The series has been nothing but eventful with fortunes swinging from one side to the other with the series being settled at 1-1. South Africa made 296 runs in their first innings & 290 in second innings where India made 643 and declared. This way India has won the Match with big success by an innings win.
Amla, as he has done throughout the series did what he does best, playing almost flawlessly and with immense concentration to almost save the game for SA. In the end the credit has to go to the Indians for patiently probing away on a wicket that didn’t resemble a day 5 track. Hashim Amla is the Man of the match as well as the Man of the series, for scoring a staggering 494 runs in the series. He was dismissed just once in this series, and ended it with 3 centuries.
Harbhajan, who has come in for a lot of criticism from all quarters prior to this match has silenced everyone with his match winning spell. In the absence of Zaheer Khan the responsibility of supporting Bhajji was taken over by Amit Mishra who bowled superbly, bringing all his variations into play, picking up 3 wickets, none more important than Kallis’s wicket last evening.
Just when it looked like Morkel and Amla would steer them home Harbhajan produced a beauty to trap Morne Morkel plumb in front to win the match for India. Never before have we seen a test match of this sorts in India since the 2001 series against Australia. The sort of Test match where I am sure the entire country were holding on to their breath as India clinched a cliff hanger!
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