Gen Next fail the test

India began the chase with debutant Murali Vijay and Dinesh Karthik opening the innings. Steyn gave the hosts the first blow when he forced in-form Karthik to hole out at long off. Vijay played some good-looking strokes his straight drive to left-arm pacer Lonwabo Tsotsobe was copy-book but just when the Tamil Nadu opener was settling in,he nicked one from Tsotsobe to the wicketkeeper.

Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma tried to forge a partnership and concentrated mostly on singles. They added 95 runs for the fourth wicket,but the run-rate kept shooting up. Sharma tried to dispatch a full toss from Johan Botha but was caught at deep square leg two runs short of his half-century. A double strike from Steyn where he removed both MS Dhoni and Kohli (57) in an over all but slammed the door shut on the Indians. Yusuf Pathan gave a simple catch at long off while Suresh Raina,who stretched the chase,hit a full-toss to the long-off fielder. Ravindra Jadeja tried to wage a rearguard,but got little help from the tail-enders. India were bundled up for 275 with five overs and three ball to go.

Huge relief

For South Africa,the win came as a huge relief. In the first two matches of the series,they had suffered at the hands of the Indian team. If it was a heartbreaking loss in the opener as they fell short by one run,the Proteas were simply overwhelmed in the next. In the dead rubber,captain Jacques Kallis opted to bat after winning the toss. The Proteas batted as if to prove a point,more so AB de Villiers,whose century went almost unnoticed in the 153-run loss in Gwalior.

The right-hander touched the three-figure mark again,making an unbeaten 102 off just 59 balls,while Jacques Kallis also scored a ton the 17th of his career as South Africa posted a mammoth 365 for two in 50 overs against what was a second-string Indian bowling attack.

On a featherbed of a pitch,the experienced duo of Kallis and de Villiers stitched together a 173-run partnership in just 17 overs. Kalliss 94-ball knock was studded with five fours and three sixes while de Villiers warmed up perfectly for the IPL,slamming 11 hits to the fence and three over it during his blistering innings.

In the death,the pair was almost making a mockery of the inexperienced bowling line-up,which had no Ashish Nehra or Praveen Kumar,adding 78 runs in five overs.

It was baptism by fire for debutant Abhimanyu Mithun who gave away 63 runs in 8 overs. The three-match old Sudeep Tyagi fared no better,leaking 59 in 8. Tyagis attempted yorkers were finding the meat of batsmens blades and he was hammered for 19 in one over towards the end. Ranjis top wicket-taker last season,Mithun experienced how difficult it is at topflight cricket as he was hit four boundaries in the 50th over.

However,it was the experienced Sreesanth who took the maximum beating,as the visitors plundered 83 off his nine overs.

Dhoni later admitted that his inexperienced bowling line-up caused more damage. They all are new faces and it was an exposure for them. Our bowlers didnt do much earlier but I think these pacers will learn soon, he said.