Kohli lights up gloomy night

Hits an unbeaten 87 but receives little support as SAs 48-run win through D/L method levels series.

He frowned at the giant scoreboard at St Georges Park,before darting away towards the safety of the dressing room. Batting with superfluous zeal on Friday,Virat Kohli was not a happy man.

While everyone else in the Indian team seemed to struggle on a pace-void pitch,Kohli looked ethereal,scoring 83 out of the team total of 137/6 in 31.3 overs. But every time the youngster tried to break through the shackles,a dirty trick was played on him.

Just a few overs back (27th),Kohli had stepped out to Robin Peterson,who was making his comeback in front of his home fans in Port Elizabeth,before caressing the delivery into the long-off stands. Kohli and Suresh Raina had resurrected the Indian innings from 49/3 at the end of the 15th over to 112 in the 27th,but Kohli made the mistake of trying to unhook. The false confidence spread to Raina and as he tried to repeat the Kohli stroke in the same Peterson over,his stumping put an end to a fruitful 63-run stand.

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Distraught,Kohli upped the ante once more the next time Peterson came on the bowl in the 29th by belting him for another neatly timed six. He stole a single off the next ball to give his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni the strike and Peterson once again celebrated manically in front of the Band Stands. Reaching for a spinner wide outside off-stump,Dhoni checked his stroke,and the ball ballooned down extra-covers throat.

Tame dismissals

While a boundary and a single off Morne Morkel gave Cape Town hero Yusuf Pathan the strike,he too succumbed like his predecessors edging the wildly swinging delivery to Ab de Villierss gloves. After Kohli lunged onto a half tracker from Lonwabo Tsotsobe in the 32nd over of the second innings punishing him ferociously through mid-wicket he must have prayed for a different conclusion to the over. And god sent down rain. Kohli finished on an unbeaten 87 and India at 142 for six after a brief cessation of rain later in the night allowed another eight deliveries to be bowled.

As the forecast finally came good and thundered down upon the Eastern Cape capital for nearly one and a half hours (between 8:50 pm and 10:10 pm),Kohli twiddled his thumbs,watching the giant screen toggle between flashing the D/L par score 187 and the highlight of the first innings. Neither of the packages made the Indian dressing room too happy. While they were 50 runs short of the D/L score,having reduced South Africa to 118/5 in the first innings gave them a good sniff of putting an end to the series 3-1 on Friday itself.