RSA VS IND - 4th ODI, India tour of South Africa, 2017-18

So in the ten hours with emotions touching all chords that lie in between ecstasy and wanting to bang your head through the wall, the message that comes out is there's nothing a pink day can't do for South African cricket. More importantly, it gives everyone some context as we tune in from PE in a couple of days. For now, I've been Vineet Anantharaman signing off on behalf of Kumar Abhisekh Das, Hariprasad Sadanandan, Rishi Roy (@_rrroy_), the early exiter, Abhinand Raghavendran and our scorer Venky.

Stat Attack by Deepu Narayanan

South Africa in 'Pink ODIs' at Wanderers:
Beat Pak by 34 runs, 2013
Beat Ind by 141 runs, 2013
Beat WI by 148 runs, 2015
Beat Eng by one wkt, 2016
Beat SL by seven wkts, 2017
Beat Ind by five wkts, 2018

Chahal + Kuldeep this series:
1st ODI: 20-0-79-5 (ER 3.95)
2nd ODI: 14.2-1-42-8 (2.93)
3rd ODI: 18-1-69-8 (3.83)
4th ODI: 11.3-0-119-3 (10.53)

Yash Raj: SA should change their original jersey colour from green to pink? -- Not a bad thought!

yahya: "Chahal & Kuldeep - 1st ODI + 2nd + 3rd = 4th (economy rate)" -- LHS = RHS, India never wanted the equation..

Krishna: "Everybody is busy talking about Chahal's no ball, I'm still thinking about Iyer's drop catch. " -- Will test their character in the rest of the series.

Aiden Markram, winning skipper: Pink seems to be the perfect potion for us. Just relieved to have got over the line today. To put some pressure on the Indians is a good feeling and to win is even better. Definitely happy with the fightback; the break out there was a blessing in disguise to break up their momentum. The bowlers too were able to work out their plans in that break. To restrict them to 290 was a great job from our bowlers. The message before today was to put fear aside and go and express ourselves and it is nice to see boys having bought into the plan. There is enough pressure in this game and you don't want boys to put pressure on themselves. It is good to have some experience in our middle-order with AB coming back. He possesses a different proposition to the opposition as well. We need to keep fighting our way; we aren't still at our best yet and need to keep improving with each game with one step at a time. Would love to take pink into our big tournaments as well (laughs). Great day, great initiative and just incredibly happy with the way the day went.

Heinrich Klaasen, Man of the Match: Unbelievable feeling; it is the best I've felt in my career so far. I was 100-percent nervous walking into the crease, my heart was beating very loudly. I have done it in the past though at the domestic level. I just want to play, doesn't matter where I bat. I was told that I would be opening, but was drafted down to number six and thank God for that. Sometimes you have to try playing innovative shots and am glad it came off tonight.

Virat Kohli, losing skipper: In the second innings when the game was placed after the interval, we got a difference of 35 between runs and balls, it was almost a T20 game. We had to take our chances, no balls aren't easy. In hindsight you have to give credit to South Africa, we didn't grab our chances and they deserved to win. After the first lightning break when Shikhar and Jinks (Rahane) came off, the guys felt that the wicket got faster and the weather got cooler and they felt that the ball wasn't coming on nicely. The ball was getting a little wet, our spinners got a bit of turn but the South African batsmen took their chances and they came off. They improvised well and they deserved to win. The game getting shorter worked in their favour; had it been a full game you never know. It was more like a T20 game and you have to go after the bowlers. If a side has momentum in their favour, it is very difficult to stop them. Especially guys like Miller and their keeper batted brilliantly as well. When AB got out we felt we were in the game but these two took it away from us. No balls are something that hurts you as a team and it is something we hope to rectify and not repeat them in the next games. They are a quality side and we know that. We also know that we have to be at the top of our game to get a win and that's what we'll do for the next game.

Aiden Markram finally has a win as a captain. He can't get enough of the hugs in the dressing room. Meanwhile, Kohli is in a hurry to get off. Nothing quite went his way. To be fair, what India eventually ended up with seemed quite decent for a 50-over contest. Just that the ball got wet, Jo'burg's altitude took over and South Africa eventually had 15 balls way too many. Whether Bhuvi and Bumrah ending up under-bowled and the overuse of the spinners was justified could only be a question for future science-fiction writers. Stay on, here is Kohli chatting and probably giving us the answers..

22:05 local: It's a carnage for the ages, the digital ages. The Wanderers, in the pink of its glory refuses to disappoint. Thank the rain, thank the lightning, thank Duckworth-Lewis, thank Chahal and his foot, thank the sloppy fielding, but South Africa have finally found a way to reverse the trend, to reverse the slide. No, don't get fooled by Phehlukwayo's 23 off 5, the game was in their bag much before. Perhaps even during the first lightning break that sucked away all of India's batting momentum. And then when it looked like Miller was getting schooled while batting, Chahal's no ball was just the diploma he needed to pass out. And how.

Chahal to Phehlukwayo, SIX, finishes quite how he started. Just wow. Gets the length to sit under, he stays low, as usual, swings his bat, as usual and tonks it into cow corner, as usual. Pink refuses to let South Africa down. The series is alive

Chahal to Phehlukwayo, wide, spinning inwards, just that Phehlukwayo is sitting inside the line to sweep. And it spins, millimeter-ing it down the leg-pole. All level

Harsha Bhogle: That was some assault on the spinners! Wonder what the impact will be for the last two games

Chahal to Phehlukwayo, SIX, step, step, away, full bat swing. Right to the pitch of the ball in unleashing his mighty arms, and some mighty timing. Repair the sightscreen, Cricket South Africa

Chahal to Klaasen, 1 run, on the shorter side. Tapped down to long-on. Clever

So just the nine runs needed now. In this over?

Kuldeep Yadav to Phehlukwayo, SIX, conventionally. And he has the biggest smile you'd ever see. Wow. Walks in, oblivious to the situation and smokes a few. A cross batted slog, into long-on for some crowd catching

Kuldeep Yadav to Phehlukwayo, FOUR, carnage. Half way down the track from Kuldeep for some reason. Phehlukwayo is quicker to reverse his stance as he pulls it away through third man now

Kuldeep Yadav to Klaasen, 1 run, shuffle, sit, read the wrong 'un and sweeps it to long leg

Kuldeep Yadav to Klaasen, no run, flat dart on the stumps. Checks it towards square leg

Kuldeep Yadav to Klaasen, 2 runs, bottom hand on duty now, drilling it down to long-on. And quicker legs

Kuldeep Yadav to Klaasen, FOUR, oh my. Starts with a massive gallop into his crease and then unleashes utter class in his lofted off-punch. Over the covers and a bounce into the fence. There aren't very many better ways to seal games