Chennai: Virat Kohli slammed a brilliant 138&nbsp;before the bowlers produced an impressive performance as India&nbsp;comfortably beat South Africa by 35 runs to level the series&nbsp;2-2, here today
Courtesy Kohli's century, India piled up a commendable&nbsp;299 for 8 in 50 overs and then restricted South Africa to 264&nbsp;for 9 despite a classy hundred by their captain AB de&nbsp;Villiers.
In the end, Kohli's 23rd ODI hundred proved to be a shade&nbsp;better effort than De Villiers' 22nd ton in the final context&nbsp;of the match. If Kohli's innings was about asserting his&nbsp;supremacy in the limited overs format, De Villiers was&nbsp;innovation personified hitting all round the wicket.&nbsp;
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/2015/oct/kohli-virat.jpg" alt="Virat Kohli en route his 138 against South Africa in Chennai on Thursday" />
Virat Kohli plays a shot en route his 138 against South Africa in &nbsp;Chennai on Thursday
Credit should be given to India's spin troika of&nbsp;Harbhajan Singh (2/50), Axar Patel (1/40) and Amit Mishra&nbsp;(1/55) for using the conditions well along with pacer&nbsp;Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3/68), who got the prize scalp of&nbsp;opposition captain.
The series will now be decided at Mumbai's Wankhede&nbsp;Stadium in the final ODI scheduled to be played on October 25.&nbsp;
De Villiers battled cramps to race to century but his&nbsp;superb 107-ball-112 could not get the Proteas home. The South&nbsp;African skipper hit 10 fours and two sixes fighting valiantly&nbsp;before a slow bouncer from Bhuvneshwar saw him try a flat&nbsp;batted shot which ended up as a thickish edge into Mahendra&nbsp;Singh Dhoni's hands.
It was De Villiers' dismissal in the 45th over that&nbsp;decisively tilted scales in India's favour. When the chase&nbsp;started, Hashim Amla's (7) woeful run in the series continued&nbsp;as he pulled one straight to Shikhar Dhawan at mid-wicket.
Gauging that the pitch was dry and turn was on offer,&nbsp;Harbhajan was brought in the attack as early as the 9th over.&nbsp;The 'Turbantor' looked dangerous in each of his six overs&nbsp;in the first spell while he got a bit of stick towards the end&nbsp;to finish with 2/50 in 10 overs.
He got the wicket of last match centurion Quinton de Kock&nbsp;(35) just when he was taking on the attack.&nbsp;It was a classical off-spinner's delivery where he&nbsp;enticed De Kock for a drive with a flighted delivery that spun&nbsp;away from the left-hander taking the outside edge which was&nbsp;held by Ajinkya Rahane at second slip.
Faf du Plessis (17) was a bit ruffled as a powerful hit&nbsp;from De Villiers hit his elbow. He was soon dismissed when he&nbsp;was adjudged caught behind off Axar bowling. While Du Plessis&nbsp;looked unhappy, the snickometer showed some noise when the&nbsp;ball passed the bat.
From 79 for 3, it soon became 88 for four when Harbhajan&nbsp;bowled one that straightened sufficiently after pitching to&nbsp;hit David Miller (6) plumb in-front.&nbsp;
However De Villiers countered the turn with footwork as&nbsp;he got a partner in Farhaan Behardien (22) as they steadily built a partnership of 56 runs for the fifth wicket.&nbsp;It was leg-spinner Mishra, who accounted for Behardien in&nbsp;the 32nd over which turned out to be a wicket-maiden.&nbsp;
Behardien should have been out off the 2nd ball when he&nbsp;nicked one to Dhoni but a vociferous appeal was turned down by&nbsp;umpire S Ravi. However off the fifth ball of that over, Mishra&nbsp;bowled a flipper which Behardien missed trying to sweep off&nbsp;middle-stump. This time Ravi raised his finger as South Africa&nbsp;were reduced to 144 for five.
De Villiers continued in attacking fashion as he&nbsp;reached his 50 with a shot over extra cover. He got a dogged&nbsp;partner in Chris Morris (9), who didn't score many but hung&nbsp;around to add 41 runs before a miscommunication led to a run-out with Ajinkya Rahane effecting a direct throw at non-striker's end.
The South African captain continued despite cramps as he&nbsp;reached 97 with a huge six off Harbhajan over deep mid-wicket&nbsp;and then another straight six off Mishra to complete his&nbsp;second hundred of the series.
Earlier, Kohli blasted six fours and five sixes in his 140-ball&nbsp;138, which is his first century in more than eight months. His&nbsp;last century was against Pakistan in a World Cup match at&nbsp;Adelaide in February early this year.
Kohli shared a 104-run partnership for the third wicket&nbsp;with Ajinkya Rahane (45) in 18.2 overs and then added 127 runs&nbsp;in 18.4 with Suresh Raina (53) for the fourth wicket to&nbsp;catapult India to a fighting total in their stipulated 50&nbsp;overs.
For South Africa, Dale Steyn (3/61) and Kagiso Rabada&nbsp;(3/54) took three wickets each, while Chris Morris (1/55)&nbsp;scalped one at the MA Chidambaram Stadium here.
Earlier electing to bat, India slumped to 35 for two&nbsp;after both the openers -- Rohit Sharma (21) and Shikhar Dhawan (7) were sent back to the pavilion by Morris and Rabada&nbsp;respectively.
Rohit was the first to be dismissed when his uppish shot&nbsp;off Morris found the safe hands of Faf du Plessis at midwicket,&nbsp;while Dhawan's downfall was brought by a stunning catch by&nbsp;wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock.
Kohli and Rahane then joined hands as India scored just&nbsp;43 runs losing two wickets in the first 10 overs. The duo&nbsp;slowly started accelerating and helped India to cross the&nbsp;100-mark in 19 overs.
Kohli was the more dominant between the two as he scored&nbsp;his fifty in just 51 balls with the help of two boundaries and&nbsp;two sixes.
The India Test skipper notched up his century in the 38th&nbsp;over when he charged down the ground and blasted a six off&nbsp;Phangiso over long-on. He scored his century in 112 balls,&nbsp;with the help of four fours and three sixes.
Raina too marked his return to form with a 52-ball 53&nbsp;which was studded with three boundaries and one six before&nbsp;becoming a victim of Steyn. Looking for a big shot, Raina&nbsp;ended up giving a simple catch to de Villiers at midwicket.&nbsp;
In pursuit to score more in the final overs, India lost&nbsp;Kohli and Harbhajan Singh (0) in the same over with Rabada&nbsp;doing the damage in consecutive deliveries of his last over.
Skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (15) too perished in the&nbsp;last over when he tried to play a shot by making room for a&nbsp;short ball from Steyn, only to find de villiers at mid off as&nbsp;India got just 29 runs from the final 30 deliveries, losing 4&nbsp;wickets in the process.

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Virat Kohli's brilliant ton trumped Proteas&nbsp;captain AB de&nbsp;Villiers' century as India comfortably beat South Africa by 35 runs&nbsp;to level the series&nbsp;2-2

4th ODI: AB's ton in vain as Kohli inspires India to 35-run win over SA

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Home / Sports / Cricket / Article / 4th ODI: AB's ton in vain as Kohli inspires India to 35-run win over SA

4th ODI: AB's ton in vain as Kohli inspires India to 35-run win over SA

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