South Africa's dogged tail-enders nearly gatecrashed India's party in the first ODI before Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his team eked out a nail-biting one-run victory to go 1-0 up in the three-match series here on Sunday night. The 65-run ninth wicket partnership between Wayne Parnell (49 off 47 balls) and Dale Steyn (35 off 19 balls) off just 38 balls nearly did the trick before South Africa,in pursuit of a 299-run winning target,were all out for 297. South Africa needed 10 runs of the last over sent down by Praveen Kumar and eventually a boundary off the last ball. There was intense drama as Praveen beat Parnell's bat and the ecstatic crowd invaded the ground to celebrate a win only to realise that it was a wide ball. Praveen then came up with the final delivery and a desperate Parnell,going for two runs,ran himself out as South Africa finished just one run short of India's total. Captain Jacques Kallis,who had claimed three Indian wickets for 29 runs from his seven tight overs,top-scored for South Africa with a 97-ball 89 - his 75th half-century. Put into bat,India had earlier posted 298 for nine at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium,riding on a string of cameos from Suresh Raina (58),Virender Sehwag (46),Dinesh Karthik (44) and Virat Kohli (31) which took them near the 300-mark.
