South Africa kept the six-game rubber alive as they beat India in the fourth ODI by five wickets via the D/L method at Johannesburg on Saturday.
Defending 202 in 28 overs after a thunderstorm-induced interruption, the Indians appeared to be in control as they reduced South Africa, who had resumed their chase from 43/1 in 7.2 overs, to 102/4 in 16.5 overs.
But then Shreyas Iyer dropped David Miller on 6 and shortly after in the same over the dangerous left-hander got another reprieve as he was bowled by Yuzvendra Chahal off a no-ball.
The left-hander punished the tourists for those failures and by the time he got out for a 28-ball 39, he had done his job. He got good support from Heinrich Klaasen who remained unbeaten on 43 off 27 balls and took the hosts over the line in 25.3 overs in the company of Andile Phehlukwayo (23 off 5 balls).
Earlier in the Pink ODI, India had won the toss and decided to have a bat. Rohit Sharma's horror show continued on this tour as he fell caught and bowled to Kagiso Rabada in the fourth over for 5.
Thereafter there was no respite for the South African bowlers thanks to a big stand between Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli. Both added 158 runs and while they were at the crease it looked liked the Indians were on course for a 320+ total.
Kohli fell against the run of play to Chris Moris for 75 but a lightning-induced break - first of the two in the day - was what truly disrupted India's momentum and upon the resumption, things changed greatly for the tourists.
Dhawan (109) departed shortly after reaching his 13th ODI ton in what was his 100th game, following which Ajinkya Rahane (8), Iyer (18) and Hardik Pandya (9) too returned to the dressing room without contributing much.
That India were able to reach 289/7 was solely down to MS Dhoni's effort of 42* off 43 balls. He got 12 runs from the last over bowled by Morris to end the Indian innings on a good note.
The South African pacers bowled short deliveries to good effect and bothered all Indian batsmen in the middle and lower order. Rabada and Lungi Ngidi returned 2/58 and 2/58 respectively.
With this win largely fuelled by Miller and Klaasen, the Proteas now trailed the rubber 1-3. The fifth match of the series will be played on Tuesday at Port Elizabeth.
