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NEWS India-South Africa Series 2006>India continues string of shameful defeats 03rd Dec 2006 23.21 IST By Manish Kumar VVS Laxman and the Twenty20 win didn’t inspire India one bit as they continued their string of shameful defeats and lost the fifth and last match of the ODI series by 9 wickets at the SuperSport Park in Centurion on December 3. Put in to bat first, the Indian batsmen turned out another spineless display. Though they lasted the full 50 overs for the first time in the series, they scored their runs at a snail’s pace by again not being able to come to terms with the pace and bounce and could put up only a low score of 200 runs losing nine wickets.
Laxman, who was being seen as the Indian saviour, registered a first ball duck edging to first slip for Portean skipper Graeme Smith to take the catch. Poking at deliveries outside his off-stump without moving his feet has always been Laxman’s bane and if he doesn’t overcome this weakness, he may never realize his World Cup dream. Sachin Tendulkar finally struck some form and hit his 74th ODI 50 off 86 balls with the help of eight fours. But before he could inflict some real damage, Sachin was caught brilliantly in the covers by AB de Villiers off Justin Kemp for 55. Dinesh Mongia (41) and Mahendra Dhoni (44) were the only notable scorers in the Indian camp but even they were controlled by some superb bowling aided by brilliant fielding of the Proteas as India managed to reach 200/9 in 50 overs. Pollock was the most economical bowler with figures of 10-4-17-2, while Makhaya Ntini took 3/32. The South Africans blasted their way to victory with an opening stand of 173 runs in just 28 overs by Smith and de Villiers. Smith struck form by hitting his 20th ODI 50 and was dismissed by Harbhajan Singh for 79 – a knock that came off 85 balls and was studded with three sixes and seven fours. de Villiers raced to an unbeaten 92 off 98 balls with the help of twelve fours and a six. Pollock came in as a pinch hitter and hammered 16 runs off 10 balls as the Proteas raced to 201/1 in 31.2 overs and win the series 4-0. All the five Indian bowlers were taken to the cleaners by the Proteas and their economy rates read – Zaheer Khan : 6.57, S Sreesanth : 9.30, Irfan Pathan : 8.00, Harbhajan: 4.87 and Anil Kumble : 4.71. Pollock was adjudged the Man of the Match and the Man of the Series for his outstanding performance throughout the series. This is the first time that India have suffered a clean sweep in a bilateral ODI series since 1997, when Sri Lanka beat them 3-0. This is India's sixth defeat in a row, the last time they had such a losing sequence was in 1988-89, when they lost seven in a row. The Test series starts from December 15. Also View In-Depth Coverage: India-South Africa Series 2006 Team Page: India Team Page: South Africa | LIVE CRICKET COVERAGE NEWS ~ Gilchrist has no plans to retire after World Cup ~ Ganguly's new batting approach may cost him sixer record ~ India 'squash the Orange' in World Cup warm-up game ~ Symonds gets a new hairdo for World Cup ~ Dhoni readies himself for stand-up act at World Cup (more in NEWS) FACE-TO-FACE ~ 500-mark a possibility in World Cup: Hayden ~ Minnows add charm to World Cup: Dravid (more in FACE-TO-FACE) COLUMNS ~ Will Sri Lanka replicate 1996 World Cup success? (more in COLUMNS) OFF-THE-FIELD ~ Ganguly again the darling of corporate world ~ Ganguly roped in as brand ambassador of Puma (more in OFF-THE-FIELD) PLAYERS Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble (more PLAYERS) TEAMS India, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Australia, West Indies, Zimbabwe, England, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Kenya, Holland | 
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