India secures a 1 run victory against South Africa: Herculean effort by Munaf Patel.

After the test series resulted in a draw, the two top ranked test teams, India and South Africa had to battle it out in a T20. Fortunate for India, it won the only T20 and thereby boasted the morale of the players. The tour progressed into the 5 one day
match series between the two nations. After winning the T20, there were certain speculations regarding India to have just a little more edge than South Africa. South Africa completely proved everyone wrong by giving a crushing defeat to India by 135 runs in
the first match of the series.  

Now the question was, weather South Africa will maintain the momentum earned by them from the first one day match victory? India provided the one day series with yet another interesting turn by winning the 2^nd one day by a margin of just 1 run
courtesy a herculean effort by Munaf Patel.

 India won the toss and chose to bat first at New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg. India could not give an immaculate start to their innings and lost its first wicket at a total of 21 runs only. It was of Murali Vijay who gave a catch into the hands of Morne
Morkel on the bowling of Lonwabo Tsotsobe after scoring 15 runs.

Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli were looking to form a good partnership by being extra careful against the new ball. Kohli was settling down at 22 runs but unfortunate for him, got run out. Moments later when the Indian Total reached 67, they lost their
third wicket. This time it was the little master Tedulkar himself. He got out on 24 runs bowled by Johan Botha.

Yuvraj Singh and the captain MS Dhoni resisted well against the South African attack by picking up one’s and two’s and despatching an odd boundary every now and then. Yuvraj completed his alluring half century and finally gave it away after scoring 53 runs.
He got out by being caught by Dale Steyn on the bowling of Tsotsobe.

After the wicket of Yuvraj it was all darkness for India as their wickets kept on falling on regular intervals. Suresh Raina got out LBW to Tsotsobe for 11 while Dhoni got out bowled by an ecstatic delivery from once again Tsotsobe after scoring precious
38 runs. The lower order was destroyed by Dale steyn and Morne Morkel as both picked two wickets each to close the books for India at 190 all out in 47.2 overs. The pick of the bowlers who sliced through the Indian batting was Lonwabo Tsotsobe who grabbed
4 wickets.

In reply, South Africa were off to a poor start as they lost their Mr Consistent Hashim Amla for 4 runs when the South African total on board was only 7. He was caught by the keeper on the bowling of Munaf Patel. Graeme Smith and Colin Ingram formed a good
little partnership of 59 runs before Ingram was given LBW to Harbhajan Singh. He scored 25 runs from 30 deliveries.

AB De Villiers could not contribute much to the South African total and was dismissed after scoring only 8 runs. JP Duminy scored 13 runs before he was caught by Vijay on the bowling of Rohit Sharma. Smith scored a dazzling half century and kept on batting
sensibly but could not prolong his innings any further after scoring 77 runs as he was out bowled by Patel.

David Miller was looking good for his 27 runs but great bowling spell of Zaheer Khan who was brought back to lead the attack did his job and got the wicket of Miller at the most crucial point in the match. After this it was all a fairy tale for India as
South African wickets kept on falling and it lost last of its 5 wickets for a total of just 48 runs. Patel grabbed 2 more wickets at the depth to give India their dream victory from only 1 run to level the 5 match series 1-1. Munaf Patel got 4 wickets and
was declared man of the match for India. Zaheer khan picked 2 wickets to support the herculean performance from Patel.

Now that India has pulled such a miraculous victory, it gives another interesting twist to the series. Once again the two nations are standing at a point where no one is better off. South Africa are under a certain amount of psychological pressure but things
can go either way from here for the remaining matches of the series.