Kallis leads Proteas to victory

Kallis' unbeaten 91 saw his team home with just three balls to spare, in pursuit of an India total of 242 for eight which owed most to Sachin Tendulkar (99) and Rahul Dravid (74).

The South Africans therefore take a 1-0 lead in this three-match series.

Number three Kallis oversaw the successful chase on a pitch of good pace for shot-making, after an opening stand of 56 was broken when AB de Villiers was athletically caught by wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik - diving away to his right off the bowling of RP Singh.

The introduction of spin at both ends, from Piyush Chawla (three for 47) and Ramesh Powar, provided a new test for the South Africans - and it soon proved too much for three of them.

Opener Morne van Wyk went six short of a half-century when he played across Chawla's leg-spin and dollied a leading edge to cover - and Herschelle Gibbs also fell to the teenager, misjudging the turn to be bowled through the gate.

Off-spinner Powar got in on the act when JP Duminy mis-swept him straight into the hands of deep square-leg - and the return of Zaheer Khan's left-arm pace brought the wicket of Mark Boucher, unfortunate to be lbw to a delivery which pitched outside leg and might also have cleared the top of the stumps.

Kallis and his new partner Andrew Hall still had plenty of work to do from 165 for five in the 34th over - with increasingly heavy cloud cover presenting the additional hazard of deteriorating light.

There was a little more on Kallis' shoulders when Hall was caught at extra-cover off Chawla. But he kept his cool in the Northern Irish chill to finish with six fours from 116 balls and get the job done in company with Vernon Philander, who struck Yuvraj Singh for the winning four over long-off. Tendulkar had earlier underpinned the India innings, after his team were put in on a cold and mostly grey morning.

The opener shared a stand of 158 in 32 overs with his captain Dravid - and by the time he departed, the world's leading ODI runscorer was just 50 short of becoming the first to reach 15,000.

With two more matches left in this series, the 34-year-old has promising prospects of adding another piece of history to his illustrious CV this week.

Tendulkar and Dravid came together after left-handers Sourav Ganguly and Gautam Gambhir had both gone cheaply to the new ball.

Ganguly, who would have gone to the second ball of the match had Kallis taken a second-slip catch off Makhaya Ntini, lasted until the eighth over before he edged behind via an attempted drive at first change Andre Nel (three for 47).

Gambhir fell for a duck to the same bowler, playing away from his body and edging to Kallis who this time accepted the chance in the cordon.

The third-wicket pair therefore needed to regroup initially, before a gradual increase in momentum - and they did so to the tune of six fours from 93 balls for Dravid and 12 from 143 for Tendulkar.

It was disappointing therefore that from 181 for two with 10 overs to go, India were to lose both mainstays in a mini-collapse which prevented them cashing in properly on what had looked a perfect platform for a significantly bigger total.

Dravid was worked by Nel, and then Tendulkar took on the arm of van Wyk and was just short of his ground as he pushed for an unwise second run to deep cover to complete what would have been his 42nd one-day international hundred.

Yuvraj holed out to mid-on, but some late improvisation from Karthik included the only six of the innings as a testing if not winning total was set.