SA vs IND 5th ODI: Lungi restricts India to 274/7 after Rohit's ton

Port Elizabeth: Lungi Ngidi bowled his career best spell and dismissed four batsmen to restrict a good looking India to 274/7 which was at one point approaching the 350-run mark in the fifth One Day International (ODI) at the St George's Park here on Tuesday.

Ngidi bagged four wickets for 51 runs in his nine overs. Among the batsmen dismissed by him are Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya (successive deliveries), Shreyas Iyer and MS Dhoni.

Rohit got out after scoring a splendid hundred. He scored 115 runs off 126 balls with 11 fours and 4 sixes. Shikhar Dhawan, who has been having a roll in the series so far, once again got off to a good start but got out to Kagiso Rabada at 34 runs off 23 balls with 8 fours.

India lost its last five wickets for only 83 runs during the slog overs. It, however, was Rohit Sharma's 17^th hundred overall and maiden century on South African soil. It was also his second ton against Proteas team, the first one came in 2015 at Kanpur when he scored 150.

The century also helped Rohit become the fourth highest century scorer in ODIs for India, following Sachin Tendulkar (49), Virat Kohli (34) and Sourav Ganguly (22).

Also Read: Rohit Sharma hits 17th ODI ton, eclipses Sehwag’s record

Rohit, who struggled to score in the previous ODIs started his innings in similar fashion. A boundary and a hit over the fence in back-to-back overs set the momentum for the Mumbai batsman, who kept going from there.

Later, one-down batsman Virat Kohli (36) played a slow 54-ball innings. He was involved in a 105-run second wicket stand with Rohit before he was ran out by Jean-Paul Duminy.

Following the dismissal, Ajinkya Rahane (8) again fell victim to Rohit's mis-timed call and was ran out by Morne Morkel.

Meanwhile, Rohit continued his flow of runs and brought up his century in the 36th over after he got a lucky escape batting on 96 being dropped by Tabraiz Shamsi.

Incoming batsman Shreyas Iyer (30) played a steady innings to keep the flow of runs going. He hit two boundaries in his 37-ball innings and was involved in a 60-run fourth wicket partnership with Rohit.

Rohit, who ended his drought of runs was cleaned up pacer Ngidi while trying to play a late cut which was easily taken by the keeper.