Virender Sehwag came out of a prolonged form slump with a sparkling unbeaten 77 as India shattered South Africa's quest for a world record winning streak with a comfortable six-wicket victory in the secondone-dayer today.
After restricting the visitors for a modest 169 for nine on a turning track, Sehwag gave glimpses of his vintage form with a belligerent 62-ball knock to help India overhaul the target with 14.2 overs to spare and square the five-match one-day series 1-1.
Sehwag came in to bat at the number 4 slot and quickly swung the game decisively in India's favour with his lustyhitting while Gautam Gambhir (38) and Irfan Pathan (37) were the other notable contributors in the low-scoring floodlit encounter at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.
The South Africans, looking to equal Australia's world record unbeaten run of 21 one-dayers, were done in by the slow turning track which was brilliantly exploited by the Indian spinners after Pathan (3/23) produced a devastating opening spell.
None of the South African batsmen could hang in for long after being put into bat as wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals much to the delight of a vociferous capacity crowd. Andrew Hall (32), Ashley Prince (30) and Shaun Pollock (29) managed to get the starts but could not really make it count.
The two teams will now travel to Chennai for the third one-dayer to be held under floodlights on Tuesday.