It was Jacques Kallis [Images] who made all the difference. Chasing 243, South Africa started with their nose in front -- they were expected to reach 250, so the initial pressure index (PI) was 93. But things didn't look easy at 124/4, or even 167/5, as the PI climbed to 120.

Also read: Yeh Kaise Hua?

But Kallis won it for South Africa by staying till the very end.

One also wonders: what if Sachin Tendulkar [Images] had scored 119 in the 143 balls that he faced, instead of just 99? Remember SA won with just 3 balls to spare!

If the pressure curve is stretched out, the length of the stretched curve is a good indicator of how close the match was. With a score of 750, this was actually a "very close" match.

Srinivas Bhogle, Sunil Patil and T M Sunil Kumar work for Cranes Software International [Get Quote] Limited, Bangalore