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The opening day of the crucial second Test at Asgiriya International Stadiumin Kandy ended with honours even on Wednesday despite an extraordinary firsthour in which the West Indies were handicapped by the loss of half theirbowling attack in the space of four balls.West Indies, asked to field by Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya, startedthe day well, taking a wicket in the very first over, but then saw theirpremier fast bowler, Mervyn Dillon, break down with a mystery injury in histhird over. Three balls later his replacement, Colin Stuart, was banned frombowling again in the innings after bowling two beamers at Jayasuriya.West Indies were left facing Sri Lanka with just one fast bowler, PedroCollins, who had not bowled a ball under match conditions in the tour priorto today, and leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine, whose fingers will still havebeen sore from his heavy workload in Galle.Nevertheless, Sri Lanka’s reckless batsmen conspired to lose four wickets inthe morning to hand the tourists the initiative before polishedhalf-centuries from Mahela Jayawardene and Hashan Tillakaratne led anafternoon recovery to leave the home team moderately well placed on 193 forfive when rain ended play for the day.The rain, which wiped out the entire final session, will have been warmlywelcomed by the West Indies management, who will be hoping that Dillonrecovers sufficiently to take a full part on tomorrows play. He did returnto bowl a five over spell in the afternoon, but did so in great pain.The management remains confused as to the reason why Dillon suddenlyexperienced shooting pains in his diaphragm after each delivery. He was fineyesterday and during the warm-up this morning. They are to consultspecialists as soon as possible.For Stuart, however, there will be no return until the second innings afterLaw 42.6 (b), which deals exclusively with the bowling of ‘High Full PitchedBalls’, was tightened up in September 2000. In the past, bowlers receivedtwo warnings before being removed from the attack, but now they get a firstand final warning.There was some confusion. Stuart marched back to his mark expecting tocontinue the over, complaining of a sweaty bowling palm, whilst the umpiresconferred with each other and the match referee, before informing CarlHooper of the freak situation. There may have a case for discretion beingused, but the rules were purposely changed to reduce subjectivity indecision-making on a dangerous issue.Kandy, of course, is no stranger to the unusual. It was here that Australiancaptain Steve Waugh broke his nose and fast bowler Jason Gillespie his legduring a horrific on-field collision in 1999.Then, earlier this year against England, Sri Lankan umpire B.C. Coorayneeded police protection after one of the most disgraceful umpiring displaysin recent times.All the while, some Sri Lanka’s cricketers and fans now privately worry thata hill country hoodoo conspires against them whenever they play here.They batted like they were cursed too, having won a good toss. MarvanAtapattu stumbled into a straight delivery from Dillon and was adjudged lbw,to record his 19th duck in 87 Test innings.Jayasuriya, perhaps unsettled by the unusual sight of five different bowlersin the first seven overs of the innings, clubbed three boundaries beforebeing surprised by some sharp bounce and edging to third slip.Kumar Sangakkara and Russel Arnold then played dreadful shots, as they triedto force leg-spinner Dinanath Ramnarine against the spin were clean bowledto leave an embarrassed home team on 53 for four.Jayawardene and Tillakaratne continued their prime form from Galle to savethem from total humiliation, adding 116 in just over two hours.Jaywardene, who came into the match with scores 104, 25, 139, 150, and 99 inhis last four Tests, counter attacked in style as he went on to score 88. Itwas a faultless innings full of well-balance pulls and compact drives.But after the after the post-lunch drinks break he became becalmed, asTillakaratne, batting with greater freedom than at anytime since returningto Test cricket in August, dominated the strike. Seemingly anxious to getmoving again he was caught and bowled in Ramnarines’s first over of a newspell as he tried to work the ball into the leg-side.Tillakaratne correctly sensed that this was not the time for one of hispainful attritional innings and pull-swept high over mid-wicket and thensquare cut for four to bring up his fifty before finishing the day unbeatenon 60.Tillakaratne has now batted for 883 minutes without being dismissedfollowing scores of 139* against India, 10* against Bangladesh, and 105* inGalle last week.The match remains evenly poised with Sri Lanka holding a marginal advantage.During the last three Tests in Kandy the first innings scores have been 253,297 and 274. With a strong lower order they are well placed to surpass this,especially if Dillon remains in capacitated.For their part, West Indies take credit from the teams response to suchmisfortune. Considering their predicament they did very well indeed,especially Ramnarine, who enjoyed some bite off the wicket in the firstsession and bowled accurately throughout.Earlier in the day both sides made one change from Galle. The Sri Lankanshad recalled left-arm fast bowler Nuwan Zoysa in place of Charitha BuddikaFernando, whilst the West Indies included left-arm fast bowler PedroCollins.

Misbah-ul-Haq has been signed by Rangpur to play in the third edition of the Bangladesh Premier League which begins from November 22. Misbah has not played international T20 cricket since he stepped down as Pakistan captain in 2012, but he has been a consistent feature in domestic T20s and foreign leagues.Misbah, 41, recently led Pakistan to No. 2 in the Test rankings after a 2-0 defeat of England in the UAE. He had hinted at retiring after the series but the PCB had asked him to delay those plans.So that means his next assignment would be a tour of England in July 2016. The remainder of Pakistan’s Test specialists will play plenty of limited-overs cricket, including the Asia Cup and the World T20 next year, but Misbah who has retired from both the shorter formats, is hoping to keep himself match-ready by playing the Quaid-E-Azam trophy, Pakistan’s premier first-class tournament, and later the Bangladesh Premier League.”I have signed with BPL,” Misbah told ESPNcricinfo. “I want to carry on and keep myself motivated and maintain my fitness. So whatever cricket comes in I want to play to avoid being complacent.”Pakistan’s domestic season will conclude in February next year. The first Test at Lord’s is in July, four months later. So Misbah is keen to secure a contract with an English county to make sure he doesn’t turn up undercooked.”I love the game and want to play it,” Misbah had said after the England Test series. “It’s really difficult when you have not played any competitive cricket for six, seven, eight months and suddenly you come and play against top players. So this is a period you need to motivate yourself.”I can still play domestic cricket and be ready for that kind of challenge, but that’s not easy. I have mentioned that before because after retiring from ODIs, I can feel that whenever the Tests come the first game is always difficult and the body mechanism is not working. I feel that I am playing after a long time and it takes one or two innings to settle and if you are getting out early it could be horrible for you so these things are there so I am just trying to rethink and work out.”

Twice, the captain Mehedi Hasan Miraz got Bangladesh Under-19s back into the semi-final against West Indies Under-19s. But when he came to bowl his last over, with West Indies needing just eight runs off 18 balls, he was tasked with scripting a miracle. There was not to be any, as he gave away one run in his over, took the cap from the umpire and slowly walked towards Mohammad Saifuddin, who eventually conceded the winning runs.Mehedi was one of those Bangladesh players who did not sit down on the floor after Shamar Springer hit the match-winning four. Instead, he pulled a few of his team-mates to their feet, and when all of them were slowly walking towards the on-coming West Indies players to shake hands, the Shere Bangla National Stadium gave them a standing ovation.Mehedi had been the face of Bangladesh Under-19s side all tournament. His calmness under pressure, and his ability to bring the team out of trouble had touched one and all.From 88 for 4 with the set batsman Joyraz Sheik just dismissed, Bangladesh could have folded quickly, but Mehedi held on, adding 85 runs for the sixth wicket with Saifuddin. He rode out the pressure period and found a boundary whenever the West Indies bowlers tried to put together a cluster of dot balls. With the ball, Mehedi bore the brunt of Gidron Paul’s early bashing but kept himself on until he removed Pope in the seventh over.Bangladesh were still in the game at that stage, but it was not to be their day. Despite Mehedi’s 60 off 74 balls and the two early wickets, Bangladesh could not really find a way to beat West Indies. The crux of the trouble was not the West Indies fast bowlers’ early verve, but the way the hosts only made 30 runs in the last five overs and lost four wickets, including those of Mehedi and Saifuddin, before the pair could start the final assault.Mehedi later said that 20 more runs towards the end of their innings would have made the difference, though he stood by the decision to bat first.”The wicket was slow. We don’t play under pressure at this level of cricket,” he said. “We thought if we score 240-250, it would be difficult for any opposition. We were short by 20 runs. When Saifuddin and I got out at that time, the runs dropped down. That’s where it went wrong for us. If I was there till the end, we could have reached 250. We had to take risk as we had six wickets in hand in the last five overs. We went behind the eight-ball as soon as Saifuddin got out the next ball to my dismissal.”Mehedi rued the extra runs mainly because of the way Saifuddin kept bowling those yorkers. He was proud of how Saifuddin kept Bangladesh in the game with his yorkers but realised that unless the West Indies batsmen went after him, they would not be effective. “He does bowl good yorkers but since we were defending a low total, it wasn’t working because they were not trying to go after him.”Their attacking start reduced the pressure that was on them at the start of the chase. Had the spinners bowled better, we would have stopped them,” he said.Mehedi said that his team learned how to handle pressure at a young age, particularly playing in front of a large crowd and handling expectations. “As much as we say there’s no pressure, there is some at the U19 level. We never played in front of such a big crowd.”We had the pressure from the expectation that we have to win the semi-final. We are still very young. We have to manage all this, and now that we have seen such situations, played in front big crowds, we will manage it well next time.”Mehedi’s side may have been the first from Bangladesh to reach the last four of the competition, but he hoped that the team would improve even further in the next World Cup.”The third-place match is also important as it would mean we would be among the top five Test-playing nations in this competition. Mushfiq bhai’s team were fifth, and after us, the next generation can better our result.”

The London County Cricket Club has embarked on its third year of looking for the next generation of England bowlers, with the aim of giving disadvantaged youngsters the opportunity to realise their potential as cricketers. For a small entry fee of £10, the contenders have just twelve balls to prove to a panel of first-class coaches that they have what it takes.So far, so Pop Idol, but the project has far greater historical depth than a vacuous venture fronted by Simon Cowell. The club was launched in 1899 by WG Grace to give “invaluable first-class match experience to many cricketers who could not otherwise get it”. The club lay dormant for a century before Neil Burns, the former Leicestershire wicketkeeper, forged its renaissance in 2004 to launch Search 4 A Star.”I believe that there are many young cricketers aged between 16 and 24 who have the ability and the desire to be nurtured as cricketers who can succeed at the highest level,” Burns said. “If for any reason they feel overlooked, rejected or unaware of the ECB county system, we at London County Cricket Club want to play our part in identifying, developing and bridging them into the system where they can ultimatelybecome successful cricketers.”And that is Burns’ chief concern, that too many talented teenagers fall through the ECB’s net – or worse, aren’t aware the net exists in the first place. The club provides a vital bridge from obscurity (and often hopelessness) to possible recognition and success. And all for a tenner.The inaugural winner was Tim Linley, a fast-medium bowler from a large Leeds family who had had little opportunity in cricket. He was subsequently offered a contract with Sussex, but found it difficult to break into the first team and was released in 2006. It was as disappointing for the club as it was for Linley.But then there was Sachin Vaja. “His is an exceptional story,” Paul Carter, LCCC’s spokesman told Cricinfo. “We discovered him in our trials in Ilford in 2005. He had played very littlestructured cricket before [apart from] a lot of tape-ball cricket. A friend of his hadread in the local newspaper that we were holding these trials and phoned himto say he should go.”He was in the car running an errand for his father andat a junction it was essentially turn left for the cricket club or right torun the errand. At the last minute he decided to turn left and attend, inthe clothes he was wearing. He turned the ball with his off-breaksunbelievably.”So impressed were the coaches – especially Jack Birkenshaw – that he was invited into the finals and joined the ECB’s spin academy last September. Vaja was awarded the inaugural Jim Laker Scholarship last September before Essex swooped to offer him a Development Contract. His story encompasses LCCC’s primary aims: spotting talent; nurturing potential.This year there is an added twist, or incentive, to the event: six youngsters will join LCCC, alongside first-class and former international players, to tour West Indies in September and October, at the invitation of Sir Viv Richards, the club’s honorary captain. From there, Burns will pick two of the six to join him at his academy in Cape Town this winter, and one of those will receive a full county contract for 2008.The chances might be slim but the rewards are plentiful. As Vaja has demonstrated, talent can take people a long way – but not without a catalyst such as Burns and Grace.To register, visit

The injured Bangladesh fast bowlers Mashrafe Mortaza and Syed Rasel will be fit for the Champions Trophy, Dav Whatmore, the coach has confirmed. Mortaza and Rasel missed the first of Bangladesh’s practice games while the second one at Savar was washed out without a ball being bowled.Mortaza, the architect of Bangladesh’s recent 3-0 whitewash of Kenya in an away one-day series, sustained an ankle injury earlier this month while Rasel had a foot injury.Meanwhile, Habibul Bashar, the Bangladesh captain who has recovered from the finger-injury he sustained in Bangladesh’s tour of Zimbabwe in July, regretted that the side could only play one practice game before the Champions Trophy. “We are looking forward to the only practice match in India,” Bashar told , a Dhaka-based daily. Our target is very simple. We want to play in the second round and I honestly believe that we have the ability to make it happen.”It is tough as Sri Lanka are in very good form while West Indies played good cricket in their last tournament and Zimbabwe won the last series against us but still it is not impossible for us. We have to win at least two games if we want to reach the second round that’s why we will try to win all our three games. There have been much talk about the Zimbabwe match but it will not surprise me if we qualify for the main tournament beating the strong opponents.”Whatmore accepted that the most realistic ambition for Bangladesh was qualification, and said that the team was determined to win all three qualifying matches. “West Indies played pretty well in the DLF Cup in Malaysia. They made it to the final. So, for us to make it through to the Champions Trophy proper, it will take really a good effort but we are capable of it.”It would be preferable to get some runs at the top. If we are able to get some good runs without losing too many wickets then that would be a nice start. At times we expose the middle order and the lower order a bit early that is not nice. But this is a young team and have tremendous potential,” he added.The chief selector Faruq Ahmed said the primary goal of the side was to beat Zimbabwe, to whom Bangladesh lost 3-2 in Harare. “We have to do it to prove that we are better than the Zimbabweans,” Ahmed said. “But it will not be easy to beat the West Indies or Sri Lanka as both are playing good cricket.”Bangladesh have to win at least two ties of the qualifying round, which features West Indies, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, but the injury news will be a boost.

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Rahul Dravid led the way with a superb 66 and Shaun Pollock, given the honour of captaining the side, chipped in with a terrific 38-ball 54 as the World XI held off a determined challenge from Victoria to post a narrow 12-run victory in a warm-up match at the Junction Oval in Melbourne.Brad Hodge top-scored with 92, and Michael Klinger chipped in with 62 as Victoria made a bright start in pursuit of 282 for victory. But with the exception of David Hussey, who made 32, none of the other batsmen could make a decisive contribution as the chase floundered. Muttiah Muralitharan ended Hodge’s marvellous innings on his way to figures of 2 for 54, and there were two wickets apiece for Shoaib Akhtar – the pick of the bowlers, in a fiery spell of 2 for 29 – and Jacques Kallis as the World XI staved off embarrassment.That had certainly been on the cards when Cameron White, seen by many as Shane Warne’s legspin successor for Australia, bowled Shahid Afridi to end an 18-run cameo, leaving the World XI reeling at 131 for 6. But Dravid added 64 with Chris Gayle and 53 with Pollock as the Victorian bowling was taken apart in the final overs.There was no hint of the drama to come as Virender Sehwag and Kumar Sangakkara added 63 for the first wicket. But a probing spell from Shane Harwood changed the complexion of the game, with Brian Lara – caught flicking one to square leg – and Kevin Pietersen, caught behind going for a big one, both falling cheaply.Dravid and Gayle started the riposte, taking the total into the realms of respectability before Rudi Koertzen gave Gayle out stumped off the bowling of White. Fortunately for the world’s finest, Pollock provided a devastating sting in the tail. After that, it was the bowlers who proved their mettle, despite Hodge’s announcement of intent to the Australian selectors.

Elite Group

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Ajay Jadeja produced an unbeaten 103 as Delhi piled on a massive total at the Roshanara Club Ground in Delhi. Resuming at 258 for 2, Delhi lost Aakash Chopra (78) and Mithun Manhas (95) early in the day. However, Jadeja found an able ally in NS Negi and the two added 81 in quick time. Jadeja, who was elevated to the Delhi captaincy in the beginning of the season, cracked 15 fours in his knock on his way to his 18th first-class hundred.
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The Karnataka batting disappointed for the second successive game as they struggled on the second day at Bangalore. Barrington Rowland, the opener, managed a battling 59 but the rest hardly put up a fight. Earlier in the day, Timil Patel (59) helped Gujarat past the 300-mark and his 66-run partnership with Siddharth Trivedi took them to a competitive 330. Vinay Kumar, the medium pacer playing just his second first-class game, finished with impressive figures of 5 for 83. Gujarat’s total, though, may end up being more than enough.
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After Ravneet Ricky’s century had put them in control yesterday, Punjab were pegged back a bit on the second day at Amritsar. Punjab were kept down to 422, after being 297 for 3 overnight, with only Chandan Madan making an impact with a lively 43. Pankaj Dharmani added 23 to his overnight score before he was lbw to Rajagopal Sathish, the part-time medium pacer. Gagandeep Singh, the opening bowler, then prised out the Assam openers before a 92-run third-wicket stand put the innings back on track. At stumps, though, Assam still had a lot of catching up to do.
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Nikhil Patwardhan’s valuable 80 helped Madhya Pradesh fight back on the second day against Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium. Patwardhan added 94 with the last three batsmen as MP inched past 250 in the face of some disciplined bowling. Mumbai then struggled against Sunil Dholpure, the offspinner making his debut, who snapped up the prize wickets of Wasim Jaffer and Amol Muzumdar and had them hobbling at 87 for 5. Vinod Kambli counterattacked with an 89-ball 68 and, along with Ajit Agarkar (37), helped Mumbai finish on level terms when stumps were drawn.
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Jai Prakash Yadav made a vital 93 and took Railways to 348 on the second day at the Karnail Singh Stadium at Delhi. Yadav added 43 with last man Santosh Saxena before falling to Ranadeb Bose, the medium pacer, who finished with 5 for 67, his fifth five-for in first-class cricket. Yadav then removed both the openers with his medium pace in an economical spell of 16 overs, conceding just 23 and Saxena picked up two more as Bengal were precariously placed at 153 for 4 at the close.
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Yusuf Pathan’s breezy 92 helped Baroda tighten their stranglehold on the second day at the Nehru Stadium at Pune. Pathan, who creamed eight fours and a six, stitched together vital partnerships with the lower-order batsmen and Baroda reached 446 in their first innings. Iqbal Siddiqui, the medium pacer, finished with a six-wicket haul. Maharashtra began well in their chase and were 72 for no loss at the end of the day.
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Sreedharan Sharath compiled his second successive century this season as he took Tamil Nadu to a competitive 353. Unlike his first hundred, which was made in a run-feast, this one was made when the rest struggled. He spent more than eight hours in the middle and put together some useful partnerships with the tail. Rudra Pratap Singh, the left-arm opening bowler, ended up as the most successful bowler with 5 for 96.

Day 3 Queensland Academy of Sport Invitation 201 and 176 (Payne 52, Kapali 4-27) beat Bangladesh 203 for 9 dec (Kapali 55, Hopes 4-35) and 145 (Sarker 33, Bashar33, MacKenzie 3-28) by 29 runs
ScorecardBangladesh were given a look at what their next month is going to be like when they were beaten within three days by the Queensland Academy of Sport Invitation side at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane.The margin was 29 runs, as Bangladesh sought to score 175 for victory, but had five chances been held, two of them off successive Damien MacKenzie deliveries, the end would have come much sooner. Earlier in the day, Bangladesh dismissed the Invitation side after they had added 23 runs to their overnight score.Bangladesh were in trouble right from the start, with Javed Omar completing a pair by giving a return catch to James Hopes. Habibul Bashar joined Hannan Sarker and saw the score through to 42 before Bashar was caught by Nathan Hauritz to give MacKenzie his first wicket of three.Sarker offered much more resistance, spending 155 minutes at the crease before he was the fifth wicket to fall, also for 33, when Bangladesh were only just over halfway to their target. Hesitant and indecisive calling did not help the nervous Bangladeshis in their bid for success as singles went a begging.Alok Kapali had added 45 runs with Sarkar for the fifth wicket, but no sooner was Sarkar out than Kapali followed him to the pavilion for 27. It was left to Khaled Mashud, who had earlier taken six catches in the Queensland Invitation innings, to try and stem the inevitable. Mashud battled for 85 minutes while scoring his 24 runs, but once he was out, it was all but over. Hopes took 2 for 25 from his 15 overs while Chris Simpson polished off the lower-order with 2 for 15 from his 7.5 overs.Click here for Day 2 Bulletin

Confirming rumours that have been circulating in the game for some time, Essex have issued a press release to the effect that their new overseas player for the 2002 season will be Zimbabwe’s wicket-keeper batsman Andy Flower.Essex have a splendid record over the years for success with overseas players, going back to the days when they signed Keith Boyce as an unknown youngster before the all-rounder went on to establish himself as a key member of Clive Lloyd’s great West Indian team. Ken McEwan fell into the same category in that he made his name in county cricket during South Africa’s international exclusion, while, more recently, established Test stars like Allan Border, Mark Waugh and Salim Malik have been prolific with the county.Flower will replace Stuart Law who had phenomenal success with Essex before a much-publicised disagreement that saw the Queenslander move to Lancashire for next season.The 33 year-old Zimbabwean is currently listed as the number one Test batsman in the world by the Price Waterhouse Coopers Ratings after a series of consistent scores, which have taken his average to 102 in his last 12 Tests.A colossus in Zimbabwean cricket, Flower has been the cornerstone of his country’s batting in recent years with more than 4,000 Test runs averaging in excess of 50 since making his Test debut in 1992. Left-hander Flower is also a leading exponent in the one-day game who currently enjoys a position of fifteenth in the international rankings. He holds the record for the highest Test score by a wicket-keeper when he made an unbeaten 232 against India last winter.Essex chief executive David East said; “The signing of Andy Flower underlines the commitment by the county to reclaim their status as one of the country’s leading clubs. He will be a terrific asset to us in both championship cricket and one-day cricket and I am both delighted and excited that we have been able to successfully conclude our negotiations to bring the best batsman in the world to Essex on a one-year deal.”During the recent Zimbabwe-England one-day series, there was a much-publicised spat between Flower and the man who will be a new county colleague, James Foster. The England wicket-keeper claimed a catch, Flower stood his ground, and there was a lengthy discussion between the two and England captain Nasser Hussain. All three received reprimands from the ICC match referee.Bearing in mind Hussain’s involvement with Essex, it would suggest that Foster is pencilled in as England wicket-keeper for some time. The fact that Essex have gone for a direct replacement as their overseas player means that they are assuming Foster’s England involvement might make him unavailable for county cricket. At the same time, he is still studying at Durham University and that will also affect his availability whatever international calls he might receive.Flower already has considerable experience of English conditions. Apart international tours with Zimbabwe, he has also spent time playing league cricket in Birmingham and, for one season, was coach to the Oxford University side.Flower will join the county after Zimbabwe complete their final Test against Australia on 7th May, although it is expected that he will have to leave Essex in early September to represent his country in the ICC Knock-Out Competition.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details5:42

Agarkar: India need to sort out batting order

South Africa defended 86 runs off the last ten overs to ensure Quinton de Kock’s first international century of 2015 and fourth in seven innings against India was not in vain. De Kock stood out after the rest of South Africa’s line-up was tied down by spin. India dragged them from 205 for 2 to 270 for 7, and then found themselves in a similar position but with less time to bat and more runs to get.In the 44th over India were 206 for 3 and South Africa’s seamers had the hosts’ middle order firmly in their grip. Unlike India, who used flight to flummox, South Africa stuck to their short-ball strategy and Morne Morkel reaped most of the success. He took two of the next three wickets, of Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, to reduce India to 216 for 6 and silence their challenge.In energy-sapping heat, de Kock’s performance was made even more impressive as he ushered a new opening partner into some form, struggled through the Indian squeeze and cast aside cramps to anchor the South African effort. He had support from Faf du Plessis, whose third half-century in as many matches helped post the highest partnership of the match – 118 runs for the third wicket – to ensure that the late wickets did not stop South Africa from posting a competitive total.India would have believed they could chase it down and were on track with Kohli and MS Dhoni at the crease but lost momentum as the innings wore on. A shuffling of the batting line-up, which saw Rahane come in at No. 6, meant that India ran out of batsmen when they needed them most.South Africa’s ability to adapt has advanced to altering their own gameplans which they did when they promoted David Miller to open the batting in a bid to assist him through his lean patch. The idea seemed to be to shield Miller from as much spin as possible but it also meant de Kock, who was only recalled to the side at the start of this series, had to operate as the senior partner.He took charge immediately with the first shot of aggression off his blade; a free-flowing drive which became the hallmark of his innings. While India’s seamers adjusted their lengths, de Kock and Miller were able to find the boundary five times in the opening seven overs and forced Dhoni to play his trump card early.Harbhajan Singh was brought on in the eighth over but the openers had settled well. De Kock brought up South Africa’s 50 with back-to-back straight drives and Miller grew in confidence, especially with his footwork. But he fell for 33 as he sliced Harbhajan to backward point where Rahane took a tumbling catch.Hashim Amla batted out of position at No. 3, struggled to find fluency and was stumped for the second match in a row. De Kock fought through a boundary drought which extended from the 14th over to the 21st and seemed to show even more patience than his senior partner, du Plessis. Again, the waiting game proved worthwhile for du Plessis, whose 50 came off 52 balls. Dhoni used a fourth spinner in Suresh Raina to try and tie South African down further but the visitors still seemed set for a total over 300, especially with de Kock at the crease.His century came when he charged against Mohit Sharma and smacked a slower ball through the covers to suggest the time had come for acceleration but then India intervened. Du Plessis tried to repeat a scoop shot that had gone over Dhoni’s head for four but skied it to a running short third man, de Kock was run-out trying to meet AB de Villiers’ demand for stealing a single and the captain was trapped lbw at the start of the 41st over.India took three wickets for five runs and South Africa had only one recognised pair left. Both JP Duminy and Farhaan Behardien have been in good form, but India’s spinners did not let them get too far away.De Kock spent the first 30 overs of the Indian reply rehydrating and by the time he got back on the field, the advantage was swinging back towards South Africa after India seemed to be cruising. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan built a solid start despite both offering chances that South Africa put down off Duminy in the eighth over.Dhawan succumbed to mounting pressure again when he tried to drive Morkel through the off side but got an edge through to de Villiers, who was keeping in de Kock’s place.Kohli was promoted to No. 3 as India looked to mimic South Africa in giving him enough time to find his way back to form and their move paid off better than South Africa’s. Kohli struck his first ODI fifty since the World Cup and batted with an authority which suggested he would see India though.With Rohit at the other end, India progressed steadily, taking advantage of a South African attack that seemed to be allowing matters to drift. Rohit reached fifty with a massive six off Imran Tahir and India’s 100 came up four balls later. Although their going was laboured, it seemed headed in the right direction until Duminy saw Rohit coming, dropped the ball a touch shorter, and completed the catch in his follow through as the batsman coaxed a gentle dab back to him.Dhoni joined Kohli in the hope of injecting some impetus into the innings. He took on Steyn with some success but was more cautious against Tahir and Kagiso Rabada who managed to tire India down. They conceded 11 runs in five overs from the 32nd over to the 36th, during which Kohli scored fifty, to prompt de Villiers to bring on one of his premier pacers again.Morkel started to make things uncomfortable for India in his second spell but it was in this third that he caused real damage. He had Dhoni caught at short third man, looking to upper cut a short ball to change the course of the chase. Tahir removed Raina, who racked up a second successive duck, with a googly that he sent to long-off and then Morkel finished India off. In two balls, he had both Kohli and Rahane caught at deep midwicket, playing identical slogs.India left the tail too much to do with 55 runs required off the last five overs and found themselves chasing the series, yet again.