Dhawan century in vain as SA fight back in ODI series

India opener Shikhar Dhawan scored a century in his 100th One-DayInternational but scintillating South Africa claimed a five-wicketDuckworth-Lewis victory in a thrilling rain-curtailed clash at theWanderers in Johannesburg yesterday.India lead the series 3-1 heading into the fifth match, to be played inPort Elizabeth on Tuesday. Dhawan’s brilliant 109 from 105 balls liftedIndia to 289 for seven in their 50 overs, but after rain intervened inthe contest, South Africa were left chasing 202 from 28 overs, a targetthey passed with 15 balls to spare to stay alive in the six-matchseries.The home side had previously had to battle against India’swrist-spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal in the series, buttore into them with a vicious assault that yielded 119 runs in just 11.3overs to ease them past their victory target. Captain Aiden Markram was trapped in front by Jasprit Bumrah and JPDuminy was also out leg before to Kuldeep. While Hasim Amla made 33 from40 deliveries, AB de Villiers went on the offensive, smashing Kuldeepfor consecutive sixes before whipping a ball from Hardik Pandya straightdown the throat of Rohit Sharma on the fine leg boundary for 26 from 18balls.However, David Miller smashed 39 from 28 balls, and shared a quick-fire72-run stand for the fifth-wicket with man of the match HeinrichKlaasen, who ended unbeaten on 43 off just 27 balls with five fours and asix. Earlier, Dhawan upstaged his captain, Virat Kohli, who playedanother valuable innings, hitting 75 in a second wicket stand of 178. His 83-ball innings took Kohli to 393 runs for a series in which he hasonly been dismissed twice. It was the third successive big partnershipbetween Dhawan and Kohli. They put on an unbeaten 93 in chasing down a small target in the secondmatch in Centurion and added 140 in setting up a win in the third matchin Cape Town.