Series moves to Cape Town for the decider, with the contest tied 1-1
South Africa 229 (Petersen 62, Bavuma 51, Thakur 7-61) and 243 for 3 (Elgar 96*, van der Dussen 40, Ashwin 1-26) beat India 202 (Rahul 50, Ashwin 46, Jansen 4-31, Rabada 3-64, Olivier 3-64) and 266 (Rahane 58, Ngidi 3-43, Jansen 3-67) by seven wickets
On Wednesday, Elgar had put his body on line, taking blows on the gloves and shoulder as he tried to save his wicket. He was more fluent today, especially towards the end of the chase, when he and Temba Bavuma struck a flurry of boundaries to wrap up the chase.
Earlier, the rain had washed out the first two sessions and play started only at 3.45pm local time. A minimum of 34 overs to be bowled in the day. As it turned out, South Africa needed only 27.4 over those to knock off the remaining 122 runs.
Jasprit Bumrah started with a jaffa, beating van der Dussen’s outside edge with an awayswinger, but otherwise he didn’t look as threatening. R Ashwin started from the other, bowled two overs before Mohammed Shami replaced him.
With the outfield still wet, India struggled to keep the ball dry. In the third over of the day itself, they requested for the ball to be changed but the umpires didn’t entertain it.
After multiple requests, the umpires finally changed the ball in the ninth over of the day. However, the subsequent over, bowled by Shami, produced 14 runs. van der Dussen first flicked him to the square leg boundary and then unleashed a ferocious pull to deposit the next ball in front of square. Shami went even shorter but ended up conceding five wides as the ball sailed over Pant. That brought down the run required to 79.
Shardul Thakur replaced Bumrah from the other end and got a couple to rear up towards van der Dussen from the cracks around the good-length mark. van der Dussen not just kept them but also found two boundaries in the over.
Shami, who had earlier beaten both batters’ outside edges, finally got his reward when he got van Dussen to nick one to second slip.
Bavuma got a life on the second ball he faced. It was fuller delivery from Thakur and he hit straight back towards the bowler. Thakur stretched his right hand out and had the ball in his hand momentarily before it popped out.
more to follow…
Hemant Brar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo