India v South Africa

At Belfast, July 1. India won by six wickets. Toss: India.

The rain-drenched conditions, which had conspired against the groundsman all week, helped create an engrossing finale by ensuring a low-scoring match in which the pace bowlers were assisted for a change, in a form of the game where the odds are often not so much stacked as skyscrapered against them. A washout looked likely, but the extended playing hours in use meant The Future Cup in Ireland 1277 that a 31-over match was eventually possible. The toss again played an important part: South Africa were put in and soon declined to 28 for four. Van Wyk and Kallis, playing inside the line of a ball that cut away to hit off, both fell for ducks to Agarkar, who had recovered from flu, then Ganguly followed up with two in two balls before the big-hitting Kemp - dropped when he had ten - led a revival with a run-a-ball 61, putting on 99 with Gibbs. Ntini gave South Africa hope with a fine spell as India slumped to 38 for three. But for the second match running Yuvraj Singh demonstrated the potency of a cool head and a hot bat against an all-seam attack (Tshabalala was left out despite all Kallis's fine words about the need to develop a spinner). The match again went down to the final over, and Yuvraj hit the winning runs to spark a pitch invasion by hundreds of fans, some of whom had flown over from London that morning.

Man of the Match: Yuvraj Singh. Man of the Series: S. R. Tendulkar.