South Africa beat India in thriller

NAGPUR, India (AP):

South Africa chased down India's total yesterday to win a high-scoring World Cup game by three wickets, inspired by a game-changing bowling spell of 5-50 from Dale Steyn.

Pace bowler Steyn limited India to 296 after Sachin Tendulkar had scored a century. India lost their last nine wickets for just 29 runs as the host nation collapsed from 267-1 and South Africa managed 300-7, hitting the winning runs in the Group B game with two balls to spare.

It was the third win in four matches for South Africa who are now on six points. India still remain on top of the group with seven points from five matches.

At the death, Robin Peterson kept his cool in the company of Faf du Plessis when 13 were needed off the last over bowled by Ashish Nehra. Peterson knocked off the runs in four deliveries.

Peterson got an inside-edged four and followed it with a six to long on to seize the last-over initiative. He hit two off the next ball before finishing with another four that silenced a boisterous Indian crowd that had been optimistic of victory for most of the match.

"The guys showed massive composure and hung in there for a win,'' said South Africa captain Graeme Smith. "The game was on an edge throughout.''

The two got in the position for the final charge after half-centuries from Hashim Amla, Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers.

Amla struck 71 off 72 balls while Kallis hit 69 off 88, but failed to dominate the bowling until AB de Villiers produced a brisk cameo.

De Villiers made a 39-ball 52 as South Africa smashed 52 runs from their batting power play. He hit six fours and a six before he was caught to a lovely catch by Virat Kohli at deep midwicket off Harbhajan Singh.

Johan Botha also chipped in with a brief 23 in the middle.

Earlier, Steyn changed the rhythm of the match after Tendulkar had put India on course for a mammoth total. A score of 400 was a serious prospect at one stage.

India lost their last nine wickets for just 29 runs in exactly nine overs and were all out for 296 in 48.4 overs.

Steyn, not impressive in his opening spell, ripped through the batting starting with Gambhir.

Batsmen tormented

While Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan gave away their wickets trying to go for runs, Steyn simply tormented the batsmen to follow in a clever spell of bowling in which he mixed up yorkers and slower deliveries.

Tendulkar, whose knock of 111 was his 48th century in one-day internationals, featured in century partnerships with Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir that dominated a highly rated bowling attack early on.

Sehwag struck 73 and Gambhir 69 but the early batting effort could not be built on because of a collapse triggered during the batting power play taken in the 39th over.

Tendulkar, who is now only one century away from completing 100 international hundreds, went for his strokes from the start.

A pulled six off Steyn set the tempo and he went on to hit two more sixes and eight fours off 101 balls.

Tendulkar added 142 runs off 107 balls with Sehwag, building their first century stand of the tournament a day after Dhoni asked for bigger partnerships from the openers.