Kohli, spinners star as India thrash South Africa

India 303 for 6 (Kohli 160*, Dhawan 76, Duminy 2-60) beat South Africa 179 (Duminy 51, Yadav 4-23, Chahal 4-46) by 124 runs.

Cape Town: South Africa continued their struggle against Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal in the third ODI at Cape Town against India.

Asked to chase down a daunting score of 304 runs, the Proteas were never in hunt, despite some resistance from JP Duminy and Khaya Zondo.

With this 124-win, India now for the first time, have won 3 consecutive ODIs against South Africa in South Africa. Kuldeep and Chahal now have scalped 21 wickets out of the 30 South African wickets on offer across the three-ODIs.

South Africa’s innings started on the back foot. Hashim Amla fell for one against his nemesis Jasprit Bumrah.

Promoted to open the batting Aiden Markram was joined by JP Duminy. The pair weathered a probing spell from Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to end up adding 50 runs in 10 overs.

Yuzvendra Chahal was called in as second change in a bid to pick wickets ahead of Powerplay 2. Markram who survived against Chahal, became Kuldeep Yadav’s victim in his first over.

Unable to pick the Chinaman, Markram came too far down the track, only find his bails rattled by MS Dhoni. This was also Dhoni’s 400th ODI dismissal.

Chahal came back into the attack and trapped Heinrich Klaasen in front for 6.

Duminy despite having a poor run of form, battled in the middle to muster him a study half-century. This was his 25th ODI score of 50 took 64 balls.

Chahal got rid of him in a similar fashion as Klassen. He fell for a 67-ball 51. Khaya Zondo along with David Miller batted with resilience and purpose. They added 39 runs in 10.2 overs to frustrate India.

Chris Morris came out in the middle with positive mindset. His charge was brought to an end by Kuldeep.

Morris tried to sweep but missed the ball completely and hit him on inside of the leg. Chahal brought Zondo’s patient innings to an end on 17 after surviving 37 balls. Andile Phelukwayo stay in middle was cut short by Kuldeep; his third wicket.

Chahal took his fourth wicket in the form of Imran Tahir. He was caught at min on by Kohli for 8. Kuldeep with his fourth wicket wrapped up South Africa’s innings on 179, handing India a runs victory. This was also the first instance of two Indian spinners claiming 4-wicket each in the same match.

Kohli (16) now has reached 3rd spot among non-wicketkeepers for most catches in India-South Africa ODIs. This is also India’s first drawn bilateral series in the country.

Earlier in the day, Virat Kohli’s 34th ODI hundred guided India to a mammoth score of 303 for 6. Kohli found support in Shikhar Dhawan as the famed lineup suffered a collapse.

However, the introduction of part-time spinner JP Duminy did the trick for the hosts as he broke the 140-run stand between the two by removing Dhawan for 76. This partnership of 140 is the second best by an Indian pair for the 2nd wicket in South Africa while this is also the only 100+ run partnership for the 2nd wicket by any visiting team against the Proteas in South Africa.

Soon after Dhawan's dismissal, Ajinkya Rahane (11) followed suit as he became Duminy's second scalp of the day after playing a rash shot.

Hardik Pandya (14) too didn't trouble the scorers much as he was dismissed by Chris Morris, before he could add to his solitary six in the innings.

Kohli then brought up his hard-fought hundred off 119 balls, which included just seven fours and that said it all about the innings.

Meanwhile, Kohli became the first Indian batsman to score a hundred against South Africa at Newlands (only Ganguly previously had an ODI century at this ground, but that came against Kenya in March 2003).

MS Dhoni (10) and Kedar Jadhav (1) departed in quick succession but Kohli finally found an able partner in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and the duo put on a 63-run stand for the seventh wicket to propel India's score to 303/6.