Cricket story by Carl Anders, Tue, 29 Nov 2005 09:24:00 GMT


A gallant, fighting knock by Captain Rahul Dravid ensured that his team India cantered home quite comfortably. The five wicket victory also helped India level the series 2-2 against South Africa.

South Africa, who were one-up, went with their tails up in to the fifth and final one-day international at Mumbai. Jacques Kallis did justice to his reputation of being one of the best batsmen for Springboks, as he scored a fluent 91 of 146 balls.

In hindsight, it may have a may have been a tad too low, but his partners at the other end did not rally around him. A cameo knock of 30 in 14 balls by Pollock gave South Africa of what looked like a reasonable total of 221 for six.

For India, Irfan Pathan, an emerging firmament on the world cricket scene, bowled a superb spell scalping three wickets, including the one of the dangerous and in-form Graeme Smith. He ended up with an impressive bowling spell with figures of 3-20. He was backed up well by the offie Harbhajan Singh who got rid of two batsmen by giving away a measly 32 runs.

An elated Dravid said: "… it's a satisfying feeling that we could win this game and square the series. All our bowlers bowled beautifully today and the manner in which the spinners responded was particularly impressive. He, however, added: “We're not getting carried away and are making sure we have the long-term plans in mind.”

When India started, Sachin again flattered only to deceive. He played some extraordinary strokes square of the wicket, which raised hopes of another vintage knock that he used to play not so long ago. However, he got out to a brilliant catch by Ashwell Prince when he tried to punish pacer Andre Nel's loose delivery.

The visitors paid the price when they dropped what was an easy catch of Dravid at 32, when spinner Johan Botha failed to latch on to him of his own bowling. After surviving that costly miss, Dravid did not look back. He struck 10 boundaries and a towering six to remain unbeaten on 78.

India achieved the target set by Proteas with 15 balls to spare.

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