DURBAN, Jan 9 (PTI): An injury-hit India produced a disciplined allround performance to notch up an emphatic 21-run victory over South Africa in the only twenty20 international here today.
Playing without key openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag, India rode on a brilliant half-century by Rohit Sharma (53 off 34 balls) and Suresh Raina�s racy 23-ball 41 to post a competitive 168 for six after skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat.
The visitors then returned to restrict South Africa to 147 for nine in the stipulated 20 overs to complete the victory at the Moses Mabhida Stadium here.
Ashish Nehra and Yusuf Pathan chimed in with two wickets each to contribute to the cause.
For South Africa, opener Morne van Wyk blasted a whrilwind 39-ball 67 comprising five fours and as many sixes but he didn�t get support from the other end as the hosts fell short by 21 runs in the end.
India and South Africa will next play the five-match one-day series starting here on Wednesday.
Chasing 169 to win, South Africa had a slow start as they lost their opener Hashim Amla in the second over with seamer Ashish Nehra doing the damage.
Nehra�s delivery landed on the off-stump and moved in a bit as Alma trying to play across the line, completely missed it only to see his wickets disturbed.
SCORECARD
India: V Kohli b Botha 28, M Vijay c Van Wyk b Parnell 14, R Sharma c Ntini b Duminy 53, Yuvraj Singh run out (Miller) 12, Y Pathan b Theron 6, S Raina c Miller b Theron 41, M Dhoni not out 10. Extras: (LB-1, W-3) 4. Total: (6 wkts in 20 overs) 168. Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-67, 3-109, 4-110, 5-136, 6-168. Bowling: Parnell 4-0-25-1, Ntini 4-0-46-0, Theron 4-0-39-2, Peterson 3-0-20-0, Botha 3-0-25-1, Duminy 2-0-12-1.
South Africa: MN van Wyk c Nehra b Kumar 67, HM Amla b Nehra 1, CA Ingram c Kumar b Patel 2, AB de Villiers run out (Nehra/Raina) 14, JP Duminy lbw b Yuvraj Singh 0, DA Miller lbw b Pathan 10, J Botha c Sharma b Nehra 25, RJ Peterson c Kohli b Pathan 2, WD Parnell c Pathan b Ashwin 14, J Theron not out 1, M Ntini not out 1. Extras: (b 4, lb 3, w 3) 10. Total: (9 wickets; 20 overs) 147. Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-31, 3-88, 4-89, 5-93, 6-108, 7-120, 8-141, 9-144. Bowling: P Kumar 3-0-17-1, A Nehra 4-0-22-2, MM Patel 2-0-26-1, R Ashwin 4-0-33-1, Yuvraj Singh 4-0-20-1, YK Pathan 3-0-22-2.
