SA wins the series 3-0, India suffers a whitewash

India’s tour of South Africa has come to an end, with the Proteas winning all of their matches. The Indian squad, who had been anticipated to dominate both Tests and ODI's, will have to return home empty-handed. With two key ICC white-ball tournaments coming up, the Men in Blue will have to make significant adjustments to their lineup.

Sunday, South Africa defeated India by four runs in the final One-Day International to complete a clean sweep of the three-match series. South Africa were bowled out for 287 in the 3rd and the final match, with ace wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock hitting 124 off 130 balls and in-form Rassie van der Dussen reaching 52 off 59 balls. Before the hosts were bowled out with one ball to spare, David Miller pitched a 39-ball innings to bring South Africa closer to the 300-run mark.

Despite half-centuries from Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, and Deepak Chahar, India were all out for 283 in 49.2 overs. Prasidh Krishna (3/59) was India’s leading bowler, with fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah (2/52) and Chahar (2/53) both taking two wickets.

With only one wicket in hand, India needed 6 runs in the final over to win by six runs. Dwayne Pretorius bowled the final over and dismissed Yuzvendra Chahal on the second ball to give South Africa a 3-0 ODI series victory over India. Deepak Chahar was the hero for the Indian side in the final match of the tour, first by picking up two wickets with the ball, and then by batting at No. 7 and scoring 54 runs. For the ninth wicket, Chahar and Jasprit Bumrah added 55 runs. In the chase, Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan both scored half-centuries for India, but they fell short of the target.

The South African skipper was overjoyed

“Got a bit crazy at the end. Probably the complacency got to us. Guys tried a couple of things that didn’t come off. Very satisfying, mission accomplished for us. Many people didn’t give us much of a chance. Hope through our performances, we’ve been able to get a couple of supporters. Making good strides as a team. Challenge is to get better and better. Quinton’s been great. Rassie as well with the bat. He’s been tremendous. His game starting to move to the next level. Bowling’s been decent. This was a big challenge, a big obstacle in our journey. To come out the way we did – winning Tests, winning ODIs convincingly will do a world of good. What pleased me most – if you look at the Test series, feel like it’s the hardest series I’ve been part of. Indian bowlers asking questions regularly. Even in the field the intensity. Physically we’ve been challenged – it’s been very hot the last couple of weeks. These conditions weren’t exactly South African like – more like the subcontinent. Always nice to contribute to the team. Enjoying my batting at the moment. Things are okay at the moment,” Temba Bavuma stated.

KL Rahul shared his dissatisfaction

“Deepak gave us a real chance of winning the game. Quite an exciting game, just disappointed we ended up on the losing side. We gave ourselves a real chance, something we can learn from and get better. Quite obvious where we’ve gone wrong. No shying away from it. At times our shot selection has been poor. Even with the ball we haven’t been hitting the right areas consistently. Have played well in patches but haven’t built pressure over a long period. Can’t fault the boys for the passion and effort. In terms of skill and understanding the situation – sometimes we’ve gone wrong. But it happens – we’ve got some new guys in the team. In the one-day series at times we’ve kept doing the same mistakes. It’s early in our journey to the World Cup. We can go back, have some hard conversations. Have had a great time in SA. Have been looked after really well. We’ve shown a lot of fight,” said KL Rahul.

Check out the highlights from the 2nd ODI between India and South Africa:

https://arthparkash.com/english/7-wicket-win-for-south-africa-against-india