Kotla Test: Ajinkya Rahane shines with 2nd century, SA fight to save Test

New Delhi Ajinkya Rahane on Sunday achieved the rare distinction of scoring a century in each innings as India needed another eight wickets on the last day of the fourth and final cricket Test against a fighting South Africa to record a historic 30 series win in KotlaAfter being set a daunting target of 481 for a win South Africa batted with extreme caution to crawl to a painstaking 72 for 2 in 72 overs at close of an eventful day at the Feroz Shah KotlaAjinkya Rahane PicPTIIn their bid to bat out for a draw South African skipper Hashim Amla 23 batting 207 balls decided to defend anything and everything that came his way with his ultradefensive approachCourtesy Rahanes unbeaten 100 off 206 ballsiquest his second of the match the hosts declared their second innings at 26 for five as skipper Virat Kohli signalled the end of the innings when the batsman completed his hundred This was the sixth Test century of Rahanes career Rahane also joined the elite list of Indian cricketers who have reached threefigure mark in both innings of a Test match Late Vijay Hazare once Sunil Gavaskar thrice Rahul Dravid twice and Virat Kohli once are the other Indian batsmen to have achieved the coveted milestoneIndia is the only team that can win this Test match but with the pitch getting slower and the turn on offer not being vicious it will be some sort of challenge for Ravindra Jadeja 010 in 23 overs and Ravichandran Ashwin 229 from 23 overs to get the remaining eight wickets on MondayThe normally prolific AB de Villiers 11 batting also put his head down producing a dead bat to the spin twins as they found it difficult to breach the defences of visiting teams two most seasoned campaignersSuch was the frustration for skipper Kohli that he introduced his opening duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Murali Vijay into the attack trying to do something Out of the BoxDe Villiers scored 11 off 91 balls and the first runs of the AmlaAB partnership came off 63 balls At stumps they had added 23 runs in 292 overs The final session yielded 32 runs in 33 overs as the Proteas batsmen defended dourly Amla took 46 balls to open and scored only six runs in his first 100 balls If Amla and Co manage to save the Test it will certainly be regarded as one of the great matchsaving knocks in the history of the gameAmlas 46 balls to get off the mark is the fourth highest deliveries consumed after John Murray of England 80 balls vs Australia 1962 Stuart Broad 62 balls vs NZ in 2013 and Grant Flower 51 balls vs NZ in 2000Opener Temba Bavuma 34 117 balls also showed resilience facing 104 balls which included three streaky boundaries and a six off Ravichandran AshwinThis is the first time that two South African batsmen in this series have played 100 balls each in a single innings This was after opener Dean Elgar 4 was removed by Ashwin who was introduced in the fourth over The Proteas still need 476 runs for an improbable winEarlier following his classy 127 Rahane once again produced a top quality innings that contained eight boundaries and three sixes facing 206 balls Rahane batted like a man possessed as he changed gears from a cautious to an attacking approach with effortless ease Kyle Abbott was cut to the boundary while he used the pace of a short delivery from Morne Morkel to guide it over thirdman fence for six Once he reached 80 Rahane slogswept a half volley from Imran Tahir over deep midwicket for his second six In the very next over Dane Piedt met with the same fate as Rahane danced down the track to hit another sixWhile he played 152 balls for his 52 on Saturday he took another 54 balls in the morning session to complete his remaining 48 runs Wriddhiman Saha 23 not out added 56 runs in only 141 overs with RahaneSkipper Kohli 88 must be a disappointed man as he missed out on a welldeserved 12th Test hundred managing to add only five runs to his overnight score of 83 It was a delivery from Abbott that was angled in and i kept low after pitching hitting Kohli in the legmiddle line Umpire Bruce Oxenford ruled it in favour of the bowler after some deliberationsIn all Kohli faced 165 balls hitting 10 boundaries as Rahane continued without much fuss The RahaneKohli duo added 154 runs for the fifth wicket which is by far the highest partnership for any wicket among the either teams in the series