India A win series against South Africa

DHARAMSALA, September 22: India A won the series against South Africa A 1-0 after the second four-day match ended in a draw following abandonment of final day's play due to heavy rains on Saturday.
No play was possible in the last three days due to heavy rains. Umpires SK Tarapore and GA Pratap Kumar after inspecting the ground on Saturday called off the match at 10 am as morning showers had left the outfield waterlogged.
South Africa, hoping to level the seires, were 264 for 4 in 70 overs on the opening day after captain Boeta Dippenaar elected to bat but rain played spoilsport.
Indian Coach Paras Mhambrey was satisfied with the result and said the Mohammad Kaif-led team had won the first match in Delhi with an all-round performance.
"We were looking forward to win the game and get the series 2-nil, but can't help the elements. I am happy with the first match in which we clinched the victory in three days. Our spinners troubled their batsmen and our batsmen scored doubles centuries. So it was a satisfying series for us," Mhambrey said.
The coach agreed that the visitors were on their way to make a comeback into the series and it would have been a close match had it gone its full length.
"It would have been an interesting game and keenly contested. They have a number of Test players in their team and we were not taking them lightly. The match could have gone either way," he said.
The former Mumbai player said he was not surprised to see the way South Africans handled the Indian spinners at the HPCA stadium here.
"No, I wasn't surprised by their handling of the spinners. In the last game their strategy didn't work but they are good players who have played Tests and were expected to come up with a plan to bounce back," he said.
The two teams will now shift their focus to the three-match One-day series to be played at Ahmedabad (Sept 26), Baroda (Sept 28) and Rajkot (Sept 30).
"The boys have played enough cricket so every one would be tuned up. It would not be difficult for them to shift focus to One-dayers," Mhambrey said.
South Africa coach Barney Mohammad said he was confident of his team squaring off the series but rain proved a dampner.
"It's normal for the South Africans to struggle initially but they adjust with time in the sub-continent. We talked about the first match and decided to be aggressive in the second match which paid off," Mohmmad said.
"On the first day we lost a couple of wickets because some umpiring decisions went against us," he added.
Mohammad felt their first day's star, Alviro Petersen's dismissal was dubious. Opener Petersen (109) scored his eighth first-class 100 which came off 163 balls.
He also stitched a 116-run partnership with Amla and made 89 runs with Dippenaar but his 3 hour and 45 minutes vigil ended when he got stumped by Parthiv Patel off Pragyan Ojha.
South Africa will be bolstered by the inclusion of Albie Morkel, Vernon Philander, Johan van der Wath, Gulam Bodi, Thandi Tshabalala and Johan Botha in the One-day series.
"We are a better One-day team. We have never lost a series in India," the coach added.