Ganguly knocks the wind out of SA sails

South Africa had a disastrous start to their innings losing their top four batsmen for 50 runs before top scorer Mark Boucher combined with Jonty Rhodes for the fifth wicket and Lance Klusener for the sixth wicket to recover some ground.

But Rhodes 32, attempting to go over the field, only managed to give a simple catch to Venkatesh Prasad at deep mid-wicket off Yuvraj Singh and once Boucher was caught brilliantly by Tendulkar off Saurav Ganguly for a well-made 60, it was all over for South Africa.

Klusener continued with a token fight for some more time before wicket-keeper Vijay Dahiya caught him off Kumble to claim his fourth victim of the match. Klusener made 29 in 37 balls and hit two boundaries.

Tendulkar then dismissed Nicky Boje and Roger Telemachus, caught brilliantly by a leaping Prasad at the midwicket fence, in the 41st over to complete the formalities.

Earlier, Zaheer Khan gave India the first break when he dismissed opener Andrew Hall 1 in his second over with the total on 13. Danger-man Gary Kirsten 12 was run out when going for the third run to land South Africa in deep trouble.

Zaheer Khan struck again to have Boeta Dippenaar, one of the heroes of South Africa8217;s eight-wicket win over England, caught behind soon after to leave them reeling at 28 for three.

And before Jacques Kallis 15 could settle down Venkatesh Prasad bowled him to give India a firm control over the match.

Earlier, Ganguly batted through the 50 overs to postthe highest individual score for an Indian against South Africa surpassing the 122 by Sachin Tendulkar.

Ganguly8217;s decision to bat first proved to be right, when he and Tendulkar combined to give India another good start adding 66 runs for the first wicket. Tendulkar was the more impressive of the two as he raced ahead of Ganguly but just as he looked set for a big score he was caught by Lance Klusener at first slip off Jacques Kallis beauty. He hit four well-timed fours in his 50-ball 39. Then came the most productive stand of the innings between Ganguly and his deputy Rahul Dravid, who added 145 runs for the second wicket off just 150 balls.

The duo played skilfully running singles and twos and not taking any risks against Allan Donald and Jacques Kallis. Indian scoring just slowed down a little bit during this time. But the moment Nicky Boje was introduced as the fifth bowler, Ganguly cut loose and hit him for three huge sixes to take 26 runs from his two overs.

Boje was promptly withdrawn but the South African misery continued as the Indian captain showed no signs of restraining his aggression. India8217;s third fifty came in just 43 balls compared to the 84 it had taken for the second.

Dravid, meanwhile, was content with playing second fiddleto Ganguly and provided able support to him. He worked his shots into the gaps for quiet singles and twos, ocassionally punishing the odd bad deliveries.

Scoreboard
India
Saurav Ganguly Not Out 12215;4, 6215;6 141
Sachin Tendulkar c Klusener b Kallis 39
Rahul Dravid c Boucher b Klusener 58
Yuvraj Singh c Rhodes b Kallis 41
Robin Singh run out 0
V Kambli lbw b Donald 0
V Dahiya c Hall b Donald 1
Extras: nb-3, W-5, B-1, lb-6 15
Total: for six wickets in 50 overs 295
Fall of wickets: 1-66, 2-211, 3-293, 4-293, 5-293, 6-295.
Bowling: S Pollock 10-1-43-0, M Telemachus 9-0-62-0, ADonald 10-1-34-2, J Kallis 10-0-71-2, L Klusener 6-0-29-1, N Boje 2-0-26-0, A Hall 3-0-23-0.

South Africa
Gary Kirsten run out 12
Andrew Hall bZaheer Khan 1
Jacques Kallis b Prasad 15
Boeta Dippenaar c Dahiya b Zaheer Khan 5
Jonty Rhodes c Prasad b Yuvraj 32
Mark Boucher c Tendulkar b Ganguly 60
Lance Klusener c Dahiya b Kumble 29
Shaun Pollock st Dahiya b Kumble 4
Nicky Boje b Tendulkar 10
Roger Telemachus c Prasad b Tendulkar 13
Allan Donald Not Out 1
Extras: b3, lb4, w7, nb4 18.
Total: all out in 41 overs 200
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-24, 3-28, 4-50, 5-104, 6-161,7-171, 8-179, 9-199.
Bowling: Zaheer Khan 5-0-27-2, Venkatesh Prasad 8-0-54-1, Anil Kumble 9-1-28-2, Anil Agarkar 7-1-21-0, Yuvraj Singh 4-1-15-1, Sachin Tendulkar 5-0-32-2, Robin Singh 2-0-11-0, Saurav Ganguly 1-0-5-1.