India v South Africa: Cricket World Cup 2023 – live updates | Cricket World Cup 2023

Can’t get over those Kohli numbers. It seemed liked he’d lost his magic powers a year or two ago, worn down after years of being the most intense, brilliant batter in the game. But he’s come back strong in 2023, and it does feel like this’ll be to him what 2011 was for Tendulkar – the crowning moment. He’s made seven international hundreds across forms this year from 31 knocks.

Thanks very much Rob. Well, it’s been Kohli’s day so far but this South African batting unit have been immense in this tournament. The tricky thing for them? They’ve not exactly loved chasing, their best work done when they’ve batted first. They lost to the Netherlands when set a target of 246, and they just got over the line against Pakistan in a one-wicket win chasing 271.

That feels like a matchwinning total, although so did 401 yesterday I suppose. Taha Hashim will join you in a second for the runchase. Thanks for your company – I’ll leave you with this evocative email from Darryl Accone.

Well, you asked about it Rob (31st over), so here goes. Barry Richards tends to be overlooked these days, eclipsed somehow by the other Richards, of whom even young cricket fans know much. For an exhilarating time in the 1970s the two Richards were the finest around and tellingly Don Bradman chose Barry to open the batting in his all-time XI, partnered by Arthur Morris (Australia). Viv didn’t make the team.

That melancholy you point out in the photograph of Barry reflects I think the tragedy of a player so endowed with genius by the cricket gods being unable to play more than four Tests because of the sports boycott of South Africa, admittedly something of greater importance.

The hundred of his I appreciated best was atypical to begin with. Far from the fluidity, exquisite timing and placement Barry typically showed, here he scratched around almost laboriously against a strong Western Province attack on the opening morning of a a weighty provincial game. The crowd at his Kingsmead home ground grew restive, then perturbed and finally even broke out into slow handclaps.

This in the context for me (and them!) of having seen Richards race to several hundreds before lunch on the opening day of matches, when he was all grace, playing the ball later than seemed possible, everything under the eyes, controlled, peerless.

At lunch, Richards had 40. Whatever he ate – and Kingsmead then was renowned for its Durban Curry repasts – he came out transformed. Gone was the curious hesitancy and lethargy. The second ball after lunch was dispatched by one of his trademarks, the cover drive, and in an hour he had gone seamlessly to his century. It was the contrast between the pre-lunch struggle that shockingly suggested to my youthful sensibility that he might be fallible and the carefree grace of the gods that followed which left such a deep impression.

More from Virat Kohli

To [equal the record] on my birthday in front of such a huge crowd; it’s the stuff of dreams. As a child you wish something like that happens, so I’m very grateful to God that I’ve been blessed with these moments. So much love from the fans as well. I’ll just continue to try to help the team in any way possible.

I think our total is well above par. The way the ball was gripping through the middle overs, it wasn’t easy, and we have a quality bowling attack. We have to work hard. The wicket will get slower and slower so hopefully we start well with the new ball.

Virat Kohli speaks

The wicket was a bit tricky to bat on. We got a great start through Rohit and Shubman so when I got in my job was to keep that momentum going. After the Powerplay the ball started gripping and the wicket started slowing down as the ball got older, so me and Shreyas had a different role. Once we lost Rohit and Shubman in the first ten overs, my role was to bat through the innings; that’s what I’ve done over the years, and that was the communication from the team as well. We didn’t think we would get to 327, but that’s what happens when you take it deep.

We had a lot of practice sessions before the Asia Cup. In those sessions Shreyas and I invariably batted together, because we knew we were Nos 3 and 4. In the middle I said to him, ‘This is the partnership, this is the partnership’. Both of us are pretty comfortable rotating the strike against spinners, and then when he loose balls he put them away so credit to him.

As I said, when you lose two wickets and you don’t have Hardik in your team, you need to bat deep and get to a stage where the opposition feels like they have to restrict you rather than thinking, ‘We’re one wicket away’. He batted beautifully and strike rotation was the key.

South Africa need 327 to win

49.5 overs: India 325-5 (Kohli 100, Jadeja 29) Jadeja scrunches successive boundaries off Jansen, then takes a single to finish a riotous cameo of 29 not out from 15 balls. Kohli will face the last delivery…

Ngidi is leaving the field. He’s limping slightly and must be a doubt for the semi-final a week on Thursday. He finishes a very tough afternoon’s work with figures of 8.2-0-63-1.

Just when Marco Jansen was out, they pull him back in: he’ll bowl the last four balls of the innings.

Ngidi suffers potential hamstring injury

49th over: India 309-5 (Kohli 100, Jadeja 14) Rabada finishes an admirable spell with figures of 10-1-48-1. It’s not about him.

Kohli has reached 49 ODI hundreds in 277 innings; Tendulkar played 452. I know the balance between bat and ball has changed, but that’s still a startling statistic. Even the magnificent Rohit Sharma, who is third on the list, has needed 251 innings for his 31 centuries.

“Good day Rob, from an overcast Cape Town,” writes Trevor Tutu. “We aren’t yet over the euphoria of the Boks’ win, but I think that we have the stamina to celebrate the Proteas lifting the World Cup too. I hope that all the analysts are wrong to think that the South African batting will be tied up in knots by the Indian spinners.

“I am enjoying the memories of the opening partnerships of Greenidge and Richards. I had a thoroughly disreputable MG in those days, and we would follow Hampshire to their JPL Sunday matches in the Home Counties in between replacing gaskets, universal joints, exhausts, big ends and all the other bits that could go wrong and prevent you from getting to the ground on time.”

Virat Kohli equals Sachin Tendulkar’s record of 49 ODI hundreds!

48th over: India 300-5 (Kohli 99, Jadeja 6) Just ones and twos off Shamsi’s final over; he finishes with 10-0-72-1. Right now, it’s not about him. It’s not about anyone on the field apart from Virat Kohli, who needs one run to make history.

47th over: India 293-5 (Kohli 97, Jadeja 1) Kohli sends the crowd into ecstasy by larruping Rabada through extra cover for four. That takes him 97 with one ball remaining in the over. It’s another good yorker and Kohli digs it out.

“I realise this wasn’t exactly ODI enforcement, but my first experience of live cricket, aged 11 and one of only two matches I ever attended with my dad, was seeing Garry Sobers (whom we’d mainly gone to watch) and Clive Lloyd (a complete unknown to us) in partnership for the International Cavaliers v India, Southport 1967,” says Geoff Wignall. “They got 86 apiece, in what felt like half an hour but was probably a couple of hours at least. I doubt they slogged anything. And yes, the sun was shining. I’ve been a cricket addict ever since.”

46th over: India 285-5 (Kohli 91, Jadeja 0) Four overs to go. Who’s got the master copy of Virat Kohli’s script then?

WICKET! India 285-5 (Suryakumar c de Kock b Shamsi 22)

45th over: India 278-4 (Kohli 89, Suryakumar 17) Kohli has started his century charge. He uses his wrists to whip Jansen to wide long-on for four, steers two past backward point and pushes a single to move to 89.

It’s also a no-ball, which means a free hit for Suryakumar. He misses that one, a wide full toss, but times the next ball down the ground for four. A lusty slap over extra cover makes it 18 from the over.

Marco Jansen, whose figures read 9-0-84-1, is in danger of breaking his own record for the most expensive spell by a South African bowler at a World Cup: 10-0-92-2 against Sri Lanka last month.

44th over: India 262-4 (Kohli 82, Suryakumar 9) A leading edge from Suryakumar drops just short of the bowler Shamsi. Later in the over Kohli steals a second run on the leg side, the kind of thing Michael Bevan did so well. In fact this whole innings has evoked the best of Bevan.

Suryakumar ends the over on a high with a thumping sweep for four. India are racing towards 300, again.

“One of the reasons I think India has done well is that they have remembered how to play ODI cricket,” writes Anand. “Given that Indians only play IPL T20 and not in multiple leagues, they seem to realise there is more than enough time in 50 overs

“Most other team members play multiple T20 competitions that it has become their default mode. That’s why we also see teams bowled out in 30-40 overs but with a very good run-rate.”

Do we have to talk about England again? (I agree by the way – India have been the smartest batting line-up in the tournament so far.)

43rd over: India 253-4 (Kohli 78, Suryakumar 4) Suryakumar starts with four dot balls, then clatters Jansen to third man for four. On commentary, Ravi Shastri reckons South Africa will have a chance of victory if dew plays a part. If not, forget it.

“Saw Barry Richards in mid-70s in the JPL Sunday League when Hampshire used to play in Portsmouth,” writes Steve Rackett. “I can remember how nonchalantly he was taking the opposing bowlers apart, he was an artist… and then he skied one. To this day I’ve never seen anyone hit a ball so high, everyone craning their necks, I can remember thinking I really wouldn’t like to be the fielder under that, waiting and waiting for it to come back down.

“Then I saw him in a county match, scoring a hundred in an opening partnership with that well known slow coach at the other end, Gordon Greenidge, who had got to about 30-odd in the same time! What an intimidating opening pair they were.”

Was there a more intimidating opening partnership in the 20th century? A handful might have been more productive but back then it was rare to have one opener who could take an attack to the cleaners, never mind two.

WICKET! India 249-4 (Rahul c van der Dussen b Jansen 8)

42nd over: India 249-3 (Kohli 78, Rahul 8) Tabraiz Shamsi starts a new spell with a wide, then another wide that is also a no-ball. Dear me. He does at least stop Kohli connecting with the free hit, cramping him for room, but there are two more wides later in the over. He’s bowling very straight, trying to give the right-handers no room, but because the ball is turning so much there is almost no margin for error.

“I saw that Aravinda innings against Lancashire and it was one of the best I’ve ever seen,” writes Iain Noble. “Hard hitting not slogging and classic driving. As a Lanky supporter the three seconds or so that Graham Lloyd waited for the ball to come to him for the catch was one of the longest I’ve ever known. I felt just a bit guilty about being pleased he was out.

“Interesting sideline on Lanky history: the shirt sponsors that season (indeed club sponsors generally back then) were NYNEX, a US telecoms and cable company (now part of Verizon). It was thanks to them threatening to withdraw their sponsorship over the issue that the Lancs committee finally got off its arse and agreed to back full membership for women which was enough to get the two-thirds majority required for the rule change at that year’s AGM.”

It’s scary how often progress is really just self-interest. For example, Yorkshire only started signing overseas players because they were in financial trouble.

41st over: India 243-3 (Kohli 77, Rahul 7) Jansen returns, which might the cue for India to go back through the gears. Or not: four singles from the over. Kohli has 77 from 97 balls, Rahul 7 from 14.

40th over: India 239-3 (Kohli 75, Rahul 5) Kohli squirts another superb yorker, this time from Rabada, between his legs for a single. There was a bit of reverse swing there as well.

There are broadly two ways of looking at Kohli’s scoring rate in the last few overs – that he’s playing for his script, or that he’s playing the long game by soaking up a bit more pressure.

I didn’t love Kohli’s glory-management earlier in the tournament but today I think he has played the conditions and nothing else. To borrow his own phrase, Kohli has put his ego in his pocket.

39th over: India 236-3 (Kohli 74, Rahul 3) Ngidi resumes, though he doesn’t look comfortable. Surely it’s not worth risking further damage with the semi-final only 12 days away. He ends the over pretty well, mind you, with Kohli digging out a terrific yorker. India have slowed down since the dismissal of Shreyas, the equivalent of taking a round off to prepare for one last flurry of haymakers.

“Barry Richards?” sniffs Jeremy Boyce. Bournemouth ? Blimey, you’re taking me right back to the John Player League days of the 1970s and 1980s, played on Sundays with one match covered in full on terrestrial! Hampshire were brilliant and fearsome, Barry Richards and Gordon Greenidge opening the batting, and Malcolm Marshall the bowling, still a scary prospect even off the restricted run-up.”

Lord Selvey’s mini-profile of Malcolm Marshall on Cricinfo is such a great piece of writing. Those profiles were originally done for the sadly short-lived Wisden.com in the early 2000s. Selve did all the big West Indians of the 1980s, and a few of his profiles – Viv is another – are up there with my favourite bits of cricket writing. I was just starting out. Those profiles made me realise that internet writing should always aspire to be as good as print, and that an “it’ll do” culture wasn’t acceptable or necessary.

Look, I said aspire.

38.3 over: India 235-3 (Kohli 74, Rahul 2) Kohli cracks a straight drive that hits the bowler Ngidi painfully on the ankle. There’s a break in play while he receives treatment.

“Ever?” says Ross McGillivray. “Good call. It was the public service! (He was back next day.)

Having worked in our equivalent, the civil service, for a year, I know how long some of those lunches can be.

38th over: India 233-3 (Kohli 73, Rahul 1) A leg stump yorker from Rabada is flicked for four by Kohli. He’s writing his own bleedin’ scripts again, isn’t he? It’s his 35th birthday, he needs a century to equal Sachin Tendulkar’s ODI record of 49, and suddenly he’s only 27 runs away.

The commentators, Ricky Ponting especially, are criticising how Temba Bavuma managed Maharaj – by leaving mid-on back throughout, even though the ball was turning away from two right-handers, and by using all his overs in one spell.

37th over: India 227-3 (Kohli 68, Rahul 0) “Gidday,” writes Ross McGillivray. “I was very junior public servant in Perth in 1970 when my boss came out of his office about half an hour after play had started at the WACA and said he’d heard that Barry Richards was going OK and he thought he might go down for a look. Should be back later, he said. He never came back.”

What, ever?

WICKET! India 227-3 (Shreyas c Markram b Ngidi 77)

36th over: India 223-2 (Kohli 68, Shreyas 73) Talking of Rabada, he’s back in the attack. Shreyas belts successive deliveries down the ground; the first would have been four but for Jansen’s great stop, the second bounced this far short of Jansen running in.

“All these big hitters in modern-day cricket, from Mark Greatbatch to Sanath Jayasuriya to Lance Klusener to Glenn Maxwell, owe it to the first guy who invented powerplay (in my opinion) even before it became a concept: Krishnamachari Srikkanth.”

I’d love to know more about his career, especially in Test cricket. Saeed Anwar too. But surely Viv Richards was the first true limited-overs enforcer? Unless you mean the first 10 overs only – I wasn’t sure because you mentioned Klusener and Maxwell.

35th over: India 219-2 (Kohli 67, Shreyas 70) Jansen off, Ngidi on. Kohli charges his first ball and whips it through midwicket for four. Some of the South African bowlers are finding this rarefied atmosphere a bit too much. Rabada and Maharaj have been very good; the rest have all gone for at least seven an over.

34th over: India 213-2 (Kohli 62, Shreyas 70) Kohli wallops a slog sweep towards deep midwicket, where Klaasen saves three runs with a quite brilliant stop. There’s nothing anyone can do when a rank long hop from Markram is pulled behind square for four by Kohli.

Oh good lord. Shreyas monsters another short ball into the crowd at cow corner. That’s his second six.

This partnership has a masterclass in tempo and risk-management: 60 runs from the first 16 overs when the going was tough, 60 more from the last seven.

33rd over: India 199-2 (Kohli 56, Shreyas 62) South Africa chased 297 to beat the hosts India in the group stage of the 2011 World Cup. That was a much better pitch though.

Jansen bowls his first angst-free over of the innings; three singles from it.

“India are essentially trying to do an SA here,” writes Anul Kanhere. “Kohli will want to bat deep and there’s a maverick in SKY coming.”

32nd over: India 196-2 (Kohli 55, Shreyas 60) The occasional offspinner Aiden Markram replaces Shamsi. Two runs, one wide, drinks. India are miles ahead of the game here.

“Ah, Aravinda,” says Mark Beadle. “I was lucky enough to see his century for Kent in a one-day final against Lancs. Back in the day when those things actually meant something.”

That innings almost reduced me to tears, and I was only following it on the radio while on the lash in Bournemouth. Goodness knows what it must have been like to see live.

31st over: India 193-2 (Kohli 54, Shreyas 59) The new bowler Jansen is splattered over mid-off for four by Shreyas, which takes him to an extremely good half-century from 64 balls. He took a long time to get his eye in, making 12 from the first 35 deliveries; it was like watching Michael Bevan. Once you promise you have to pay, and Shreyas did just that: the next 39 runs came from 29 balls.

India’s pre-emptive strike on Marco Jansen, who is such a threat when his tail is up, has been exemplary. Shreyas clatters two more boundaries, one through extra cover and the other pulled to deep midwicket. Two wides complete a desperate over for Jansen, whose five overs have disappeared for 57. That last boundary also brings up a masterful century partnership from 129 balls.

“Aravinda de Silva rightly made it into John Woodcock’s ‘100 Greatest Cricketers’ (1998), still peerless in its knowledge, discernment and wit,” says Darryl Accone. “De Silva’s calm, perfectly paced century in the 1996 World Cup final against Australia remains one of the best innings I have seen. (Disclosure: on television; live has to be any number of hundreds by Barry Richards.) You are right that De Silva is somewhat neglected and undervalued.”

Hang on, I want to hear about your favourite Barry Richards hundred. As well as being a strong contender for an All-Time World XI, he’s a fascinating character. There was a great picture in the Cricketer recently, taken after he scored 325 not out in a day against Dennis Lillee and friends; Richards is walking off the field and he looks melancholy. In fact, I think this is it. Maybe it’s just exhaustion and I’m reading too much into it, but it feels like a snapshot of tortured genius.

30th over: India 179-2 (Kohli 54, Shreyas 47) Shreyas pulls Shamsi viciously for four to move into the forties. He would have made it back-to-back boundaries but for an admirable stop on the boundary by Jansen. Unlike Maharaj, against whom no risks were taken, Kohli and Shreyas are playing Shamsi with increasing ease: his last 19 balls have gone for 31. I’d be tempted to save his last four overs for when a new batsman comes in.

29th over: India 170-2 (Kohli 53, Shreyas 39) The birthday boy drives Maharaj for a single to reach a calm, intelligent half-century from 67 balls. He started in fourth gear, lashing 18 from 14 balls in the Powerplay, then changed his approach completely against the spinners.

By soaking up the pressure, he and Shreyas Iyer have put India on course for a matchwinning total. Maharaj ends a fine, boundaryless spell with figures of 10-0-30-1. But as well as he bowled, South Africa needed another wicket or two from him.

28th over: India 163-2 (Kohli 49, Shreyas 36) Yeeha! Shreyas Iyer pumps Shamsi down the ground for a big six, his first of the day. Later in the over he flicks in the air but well wide of square leg for a single, and India steal a bonus run when Klaasen’s throw deflects off the stumps.

It takes nerve, and trust in your talent, to start as slowly as Shreyas did today: 12 from the first 35 balls, 24 from the last 19. India have such a smart batting line-up.

27th over: India 153-2 (Kohli 48, Shreyas 27) “If India get 300, it’s game over,” says Ricky Ponting. There’s a strangled LBW shout from Maharaj when Kohli plays around a ball that would have missed leg. He continues to toy with Kohli, whose only ambition is to get him out of there. That job is almost done.

“This is top-class bowling from South Africa,” writes Shashank Yeleswarapu. “As an Indian fan however, I can only imagine how much Jadeja and Kuldeep are salivating… Assuming of course that India post a competitive total on this pitch.”

Given how well they’re bowling, they may already have done so. Nothing is what it seems in this tournament – I gave Pakistan a 0.00 per cent chance yesterday – but my instinct is that India are in a strong position.

26th over: India 151-2 (Kohli 47, Shreyas 26) The amount of turn means Shamsi is bowling a few wide – four in as many overs now. He has also been much easier to milk than Maharaj; in fact Shamsi has conceded more runs in four overs (24) than Maharaj has in eight (21).

“Morning Rob, and happy birthday Mr Kohli and Mr Starbuck,” writes Simon McMahon. “ I’ll resist the urge to mention fireworks. Sharing your birthday with a legend of the game must feel pretty cool though. If I ever meet Virat I’ll be sure to ask him.”

25th over: India 143-2 (Kohli 42, Shreyas 24) Dinesh Karthik, commentating on TV, thinks 250-260 would be a very competitive total on this pitch. That early assault from Rohit looks increasingly valuable. South Africa would love another specialist spinner, though they do have Aiden Markram’s occasional offies.

Shreyas squirts Maharaj for a single to bring up a vigilant fifty partnership from 87 balls. That looks slow but in context it feels very well judged – especially as Maharaj now has only two overs remaining.

24th over: India 141-2 (Kohli 41, Shreyas 23) Shreyas plays his first really big shot, using his wrists to launch Shamsi over wide mid-off for four. That’s only the third boundary since the Powerplay, and one of those was wrongly awarded.

23rd over: India 134-2 (Kohli 40, Shreyas 18) I may have missed something but I can’t recall a single big shot off Maharaj in seven overs. All 19 runs off him have been low-risk singles.

22nd over: India 133-2 (Kohli 40, Shreyas 17) That’s a disgraceful shot from Shreyas Iyer. When I say disgraceful, I really mean mind-blowing in its audacity. After 35 balls without a boundary, he walks across and takes Shamsi off leg stump for four. That doesn’t begin to do it justice – the shot was so late that the ball was almost behind him.

It was originally given as byes before the umpire changed his mind after a wide-eyed appeal from Kohli. Ah, the plot thickens: replays show Iyer didn’t hit the ball.

I’m sticking to my story. The shot was still mind-blowing in its audacity; he just didn’t connect with it.

21st over: India 127-2 (Kohli 39, Shreyas 12) Maharaj is bowling so beautifully, with figures of 6-0-18-1. I suspect India’s assessment of a winning score is getting lower with each passing over. This isn’t an easy pitch at all.