Proteas crush India

Durban: The famed Men in Blue were brought down crashing by the South Africans who took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series at Kingsmead here on Sunday.

The Proteas handed a crushing 134-run defeat after the match began 90 minutes behind schedule because of wet outfield that saw the match reduced to 49 overs-a-side game. With lessons from the first ODI not having been learnt, the batsmen, like the bowlers, gave a pathetic display against the sustained pacers' assault to be shot out for a paltry 146 runs in 35.1 overs after Lonwabe Tsotsobe scalped Mohammed Shami to give them a famous victory.

Earlier, Dale Steyn had castled Umesh Yadav to reduce the visitors to 146/9. Captain AB de Villiers brought off a brilliant catch to send back Ravindra Jadeja. Earlier, the host middle order failed to further on the solid foundation laid by centurions Quinton de Kock and Hashim Amla to be restricted to 280/6.

South Africa got to the 280-run mark only because Ryan McLaren and Vernon Philander carted Umesh Yadav for 20 runs in the last over of their innings. Mohammed Shami took his third wicket when he clean bowled Jacques Kallis in the penultimate over. He was lucky to get Miller dismissed leg before wicket as there was a clear inside edge onto the batsman's pads.

Amla's 12th ODI century came off 116 balls and this was his third century against India. On reaching 59, Amla became the fastest batsman to complete 4000 ODI runs. The 81 innings beat Sir Viv Richards’ who got to the landmark in 88 innings. De Kock smashed a 118-ball 106 before Ashwin had him caught by Rohit Sharma at square leg and in the next over Jadeja had De Villiers stumped by MS Dhoni.

De Kock hit his second successive century off 112 balls and added 194 runs with Hashim Amla for the first wicket.

South Africa 280-6 in 49 overs (Quinton de Kock 106, Hashim Amla 100, Mohammed Shami 3/48)

India 146 in 35.1 overs (Suresh Raina 36, Ravindra Jadeja 26, Lonwabo Tsotsobe 4/25, Dale Steyn 3/17, Morne Morkel 2/34).