Heinrich Klaasen played a crucial hand to arrest the slew of losses. © Getty

It came late but it certainly hasn't come too late. South Africa kept their proud unbeaten record in pink ODIs intact and as a result, managed to keep the series alive as well with a gutsy display on Saturday (February 10) in a rain-affected game at the Wanderers. In what was a reversal of sorts, they took on India's wrist spinners, smashing them for 119 runs in the 69 balls they bowled. In the process, they also found a new hero in the form of Heinrich Klaasen, who played a huge part in helping his side pull one back.

All hopes seemed to be lost at one stage when AB de Villiers, the man with an outstanding record at this venue, perished by pulling Hardik Pandya, the supposed weaklink of this bowling attack, straight to the man at the fine leg boundary. At that stage, South Africa still needed 100 off 67 balls with the big guns gone. Kuldeep Yadav had brought India back into the contest right after the rain break that had reduced the contest to a 28-over clash, asking South Africa to score 202 off them but de Villiers' wicket almost sounded the death knell.

The fortunes changed immediately in the very next over though when Shreyas Iyer, who had come in for the injured Kedar Jadhav, dropped an easy catch off David Miller, who was later castled in the same over off a no-ball. Perhaps, that was the kind of luck the home side needed as Miller took full toll of this opportunity to wreak havoc.

After smashing Hardik for three successive fours, Miller smashed one that was bowled in his arc by Kuldeep. Klaasen at the other end, surprised one and all by chipping in with a vital contribution as well. Not only did he bring out the reverse sweep, he played an audacious shot off Chahal in the following over by pulling one after realising there was no one behind square leg. In the same over, he also punished an erratic Chahal by taking full toll of a free-hit ball.

Even though Miller departed soon after pulling Chahal for another six, Andile Phehlukwayo stunned India with his approach as he picked up ten runs off two balls to bring it down to nine off the last three overs. He smashed two more sixes in the following over of Chahal to polish off the chase as many were left wondering why Virat Kohli didn't bring on his seamers earlier.

India were also left ruing earlier in the day after another fine top order performance didn't result in a huge total. Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli had done their thing again, as they have been the entire series but the middle order, which has largely remained untested in recent times, crumbled. Kohli and Dhawan looked increasingly confident right from the outset despite Rohit Sharma's early departure.

The duo scored just six runs in three overs after the powerplay before Dhawan crunched Chris Morris for a couple of pull shots. Dropping Imran Tahir in favour of Morne Morkel meant that South Africa went in with an all pace-attack and lacked dimension to trouble the two well-set batsmen. The shot of the evening came in the 17th over when Kohli effortlessly stepped down the pitch to loft Lungi Ngidi.

Once their partnership went past 100, the duo accelerated with a flurry of boundaries before a small period of lull gave South Africa a chance. They took it gladly with Kohli perishing while attempting to break the shackles while Dhawan at the other end, hit a six and a four in the span of four balls to bring up his 13th ODI ton. In the process, he became only the ninth batsman to register three figures in his 100th ODI. Soon after, the players left the field due to lightning and the break revitalised the hosts big time.

India kept losing wickets at regular intervals and struggled for momentum at the death. With Iyer and Hardik failing to provide the finishing touch, the onus was on Dhoni to guide India to a decent total. He hit a couple of boundaries in the final over to drag India to 289, but it was at least 30 short of the target they would have liked initially given their start. But given the circumstances in which they lost this game, perhaps, it was just meant to be South Africa's night.

Brief scores: India 289/7 in 50 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 109, Virat Kohli 75; Lungi Ngidi 2-52) lost to South Africa 207/5 in 25.3 overs (Heinrich Klaasen 43*, David Miller 39; Kuldeep Yadav 2-51) by five wickets.