South Africa beat India by five wickets in the fourth One Day International match with 15 balls remaining at Johannesburg on February 10, 2018.

This is South Africa's sixth straight victory on Pink Day.

Indian innings

Choosing to bat first after winning the toss, India scored 289 runs for the loss of seven wickets, giving the hosts a target of 290 runs to win. But the weather god had other plans. Rain stopped play and reduced the game to 28 overs, and South Africa was given a fresh target of 204 runs to win the game and keep the six-match series alive.

India dominated the game throughout with a fluent century from opener Shikhar Dhawan, but when it looked like India would pass the score of 300 easily, too many quick wickets fell, and the Indian march was stopped.

MS Dhoni, as usual, occupied the role of a finisher and scored 42 valuable runs and stopped the wickets from falling further.

Rabada and Ngidi took two wickets each. Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya got out for Rabada while SS Iyer and Ajinkya Rahane were victims of Ngidi.

Rohit Sharma's poor run with the bat continues

Rohit Sharma failed yet again scoring just five runs for the fourth time in a row in this series and was trolled very badly on Twitter.

He took 19 deliveries to score his five runs but also struggled throughout.

One hilarious tweet read "Rohit Sharma missed his double century by just 195 runs!"

Another tweet read, "Rohit Sharma on this tour: Tests - 11, 10, 10, 47 — ODIs - 20, 15, 0, 5"

Analysts were quick to find out his flaws whenever he bats overseas and fails.

Former South Africa skipper and coach Keppler Wessels in an interview Cricinfo.com said, “He will always struggle to score runs in South Africa because of his footwork. He plants his front foot across to the off-side and in SA, the pitches always seam and bounce a bit. He’ll always struggle there because of his technique."

South African innings

Chasing a target of 204 runs, the hosts, even though lost wickets at regular intervals, were well within reach of the target.

There was a small scare when Hashim Amla got out when the score was 77. Three wickets at the score of 77 runs and still many runs to be scored on a bouncy pitch was a bit of a tough ask considering the rain and the moist wicket.

But the experienced SA batsman scored 207/5 in 25.3 overs. David Miller was destructive with his 39 runs. He even smashed a six so far into the crowd that the ball had to be replaced.

The weather helped perfectly for the hosts today; it came at a time when the Indians just finished their batting and stopped after the target runs were announced via D/L method.

This is Duckworth–Lewis method of calculation — in case there is rain, and the overs get reduced. The method assigns a target based on the wickets lost and in the overs scored.

Virat Kohli reached another milestone

Skipper Virat Kohli continued his glorious form and struck another 75 runs in the Indian innings. By scoring 50 runs in this innings, he became the 5th all-time highest scorer for India. He now stands at 9423 runs in ODI's. He has also scored 5554 runs in Tests in 112 innings that he has played.

India is already ahead in the series 3-0, and they have no fear of losing the series.

With the series now at 3-1, India can either go ahead and win one of the remaining two games to win the series or even if they lose the rest of the two games the series will draw.

T20 series

After this series, the three Twenty20 matches will be played. The first game is scheduled on February 18. India has summoned T20 specialist Suresh Raina into the squad. Players may utilize this series to sharpen their skills for the upcoming Indian Premier League to be played in April 2018.
Don't miss our page on Facebook!
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED