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December 03, 2006 (Link to Scorecard)

The Boys in Blue got yet another pounding from the super strong Proteas as they slipped to an embarrassing 9-wicket defeat in the last of the five ODIs at the SuperSport Park in Centurion. It was a dreadful day for the Indians as they were completely matchless having posted a weak 200 on the board which was overwhelmed in just over 31 overs! The new opening combination of AB de Villiers and Graeme Smith had hammered 173 runs which completely demoralized the tourists.

It's another spineless and gutless performance from Team India which now takes the string of defeats to 12 in the last 16 games. Most of its players are looking quite listless under an expensive Coach who has talked more rather than act when it came to giving the results that the millions of fans back home demand. Winning and losing is a part of a game which even an average fan can understand but never in this series has India looked like a team that was competing, in the end it looked as if South Africa were up against minnows! With the Test Series coming up, the team will only be getting a lot more of pace and bounce, there wouldn't be any respite with some one like Dale Steyn certain to strengthen the pace attack. Although the batting is now definitely experienced with the addition of Sourav and Laxman, it will take one heck of a show from the team to come back from the One Day losses.

It looks that the South African coins have just one side to them as Skipper Graeme Smith called correctly for the fifth time in a row with the Twenty20 included. For the first time on the tour, India got to bat first and put a total to put pressure on the top order of the South Africans. Centurion was India's favourite venue with three victories coming here. Three changes were made in the Indian side with Wasim Jaffer, Mohammad Kaif and Ajit Agarkar making way for VVS Laxman, Dinesh Mongia and Harbhajan Singh. Ashwell Prince came in for Loots Bosman and Robin Peterson in for Andrew Hall for the homeside. Shaun Pollock in the 7th over of the match got two wickets in consecutive balls to put the Indians right on the backfoot. First to go was Sehwag, driving away from his body after losing his patience against the good seam bowling. VVS Laxman could only last the one ball as he poked at an away going delivery leaving Pollock on a hat-trick in his next over which was denied by Mongia. Tendulkar who was very tentative had Dinesh Mongia at the other end who did look good in his defence. The pair battled hard to do the surviving act, never mind even if the runs weren't coming. They had to make sure that India batted for the 50 overs at least this time.

It took Tendulkar more than 40 deliveries to find his first boundary, but once he saw off the new ball spell, there was more of a positive intent in him. He took on Jacques Kallis to get the much needed momentum in the innings. And as the little man got the ball into the middle of his thick blade often, the partnership with Mongia blossomed steadily. Tendulkar got to his 74th fifty as well but he couldn't kick on to get a big score falling to a bad shot off a bad delivery from Justin Kemp. Tendulkar worked his way to 55 which had come in 97 balls with 8 fours. His partnership with Dinesh Mongia was worth 85 runs which had come in 24.4 overs. Few overs later, Dinesh Mongia paid the price for being too cheeky as he got bowled round his legs trying to play a predetermined paddle sweep off Kemp. He accumulated 41 from 89 balls with 3 fours. India's innings got a decent finish to it's falling standards on this tour thanks to a well made 49-ball 44 from Dhoni. Two of the three sixes of the innings had come from Dhoni, his first one was over long on to indirectly ask Andre Nel to shut his mouth while the second one was a meaty pull off Kallis. Zaheer Khan with a final over six off Makhaya Ntini helped India to reach exactly 200 in the end which they did losing 9 wickets. Mission successful as far as the Indians were concerned, they got to 200 for the first time and had lasted the full 50 overs for the first time in four attempts! Among the bowlers, Shaun Pollock stood out with 2 for 17 in 10 while Ntini bagged the most number of wickets, three for 32 in 10. They were seven maidens bowled by the homeside which was a tremendous effort.

Virender Sehwag had to go with a bowler short with Tendulkar not taking the field as he was having ice on his elbow that was struck by an Andre Nel delivery. Mohammad Kaif was the substitute on duty and he was the culprit dropping AB de Villiers after the batsman had cut Sreesanth straight to him at point. Before that it was a smart ploy from Graeme Smith to bat at no.2 and avoid facing Zaheer Khan who had his wicket four times before this game. Smith just didn't get to face a single delivery from Zaheer for a long time which got him to settle down and find his lost touch. Sreesanth was taken to the cleaners and had to be taken out of the attack after giving away 25 in 3. His replacement was Irfan Pathan who had to be taken off as well as he went for 13 in his first over. Both the openers were unkind on the bowling which forced Sehwag to hold back the powerplays and resort to the spin twins. That only got the momentum down by just a bit, there were absolutely no wicket taking deliveries bowled by any of the bowlers. Kumble, Harbhajan just couldn't get past the bats. Both batsmen eased to their respective fifties with de Villiers being the first one to reach his 3rd one of his career in 50 balls while Smith got his in 61 balls, it was his 20th one.

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