India continued its supremacy over South Africa winning 3rd match at Champions Trophy against them, leading them 3-0. Dhoni’s captaincy in introducing spinners, Shikhar Dhawan’s maiden ODI century, the promotion of Rohit Sharma, exceptional fielding and allround performance of Rockstar Jadeja helped India start on a winning note.
2013 Champions Trophy Fixture and Results
Statistics
- Shikhar Dhawan scored his maiden century, was declared the MOM, his first in ODI.
Scores: Ind 331/7 and SA 305
India won by 26 runs.
6s: Ind-5, SA-1
4s: Ind- 34, SA-35
Run outs: Ind-1, SA-2
331/7 was 2nd highest score in Champions Trophy history (347/4 (NZ vs USA is the best).
India scored its 2nd and SA scored its 3rd 300+ score in Champions Trophy.
Overall 11th 300th score of Champions Trophy (3 SA, 2 NZ, SL, Ind, 1 Pak, Eng)
South African bowlers Peterson and McLaren scored their maiden half-centuries.
Jadeja bowled the only maiden over of the match, and also has the best economy of 3.44.
Two 100+ partnerships in the match: 127 for 1st wicket by India and 124 for 3rd wicket by South Africa.
6th century partnership by India at Champions Trophy.
8th century partnership by South Africa at Champions Trophy.
India leads South Africa 3-0 in Champions Trophy.
South Africa leads India 40-25 in overall ODI matches.
Dhawan scored 7th century by Indian batsmen at Champions Trophy (3 by Ganguly, 1 each by Kaif, Sehwag, Tendulkar and Shikhar Dhawan).
Indian Innings
Sent to bat first in the opening match of the last Champions Trophy, Indian team fill with youngsters reprimanded South African bowlers with allround onslaught. Rohit Sharma was given the challenge to open the innings, if he wanted to be in team and with his fluent 65 runs, his 15th ODI half-century, he showed his form in IPL was no fluke. His 127 runs partnership for the first wicket with Shikhar Dhawan, the new hero of Indian Cricket, set the mood for the Champions Trophy. The century partnership was 6th 100+ partnership for India, and overall 7th such partnership against South Africa.
Dhawan’s century with a strike rate of 100+ upstaged the South African pacers and spinners. His attack on the Morne Morkel led bowling unit appeared to be a Thank You note to South African team for not making him face Steyn, his IPL team member. He scored 94-ball 114 runs with a six and 12 boundaries, his first century in ODIs in his 6th appearance for Indian ODI team. His century was the 7th by an Indian player in Champions Trophy, as he became the 5th Indian (Ganguly has 3 centuries) to cross 100-run score.
Kohli played a cameo of 31 runs and added 83 runs for second wicket with Dhawan, and then came Dinesh Karthik who had scored back-to-back centuries in the two Warm up matches, against Sri Lanka and Australia. Kohli’s wicket just before batting powerplay in 35th over gave some hope for late control. But Dhoni and Jadeja ensured India reached a huge 331/7. Dhoni scored 26-ball 27 runs, Jadeja remained unbeaten on 29-ball 47 runs. Raina failed scoring 9 runs. Ashwin scoring 10 runs helped India score 120 runs in last 15 overs.
For South Africa Morkel was pick of the bowler but after 6.5 overs he had to leave the field. He had the best economy with 0/27. Duminy tried to bring them back with 1/42 in 10 overs as regular spinner Peterson also went for runs giving 24 runs in 3.1 overs. McLaren grabbed 3/72 while Tsotsobe (2/83) and Kleinveldt (0/81) were very expensive.
SA chase of 332 runs
Champions Trophy has not seen a score above 300 runs chased in its history. Only once both teams scored 300 runs, but then also South Africa could reach only 301/9 while chasing 323/8 scored by England in Group B match of 2009. Today they could reach 305 and fell short by 26 runs.
The start of their innings indicated the inevitable as they 2/31 in 3.5 overs with Amla (22) and Ingram (6) back to pavillion. But Peterson (68 runs) scoring his maiden half-century added 124 runs for third wicket with captain AB de Villiers (71-ball 70 runs) to give them a fair chance of chasing. But the spinners of India – Ashwin (0/47), Jadeja and Raina (0/36) brought India back in the game. Duminy (14 runs), Plessis (30 runs), Miller (0) could not help the cause. Kleinveldt (4), Tsotsobe (3) and Morkel (8) provided the supporting hand to Ryan McLaren, who tried to fight the battle alone scoring his unbeaten maiden half-century (61-ball 71 runs with a six and 11 boundaries). But the chase was too high.
For India Jadeja was the best bowler, bowling the only maiden of the match and with a figure of 2/31 in 9 overs. His economy was also the best in the match. B Kumar (2/49 in 7 overs), Ishant (2/66 in 8 overs) and Umesh Yadav (2/75) were taken to cleaners. Umesh Yadav and Jadeja bowled well towards the death overs.
Going ahead, South Africa plays Pakistan on Monday, while India plays West Indies on Tuesday.
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