India failed to register a single victory in the One Day International series against South Africa. India decided to chase after winning the toss in the third ODI which was a dead rubber. Indian team made four changes in the side bringing in Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Jayant Yadav and Suryakumar Yadav in place of Venkatesh Iyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur and out of form Bhuvaneswar Kumar.
Chahar gave India a very good start with the bowl as South Africa lost three wickets within the 13th over. But a sensational century by Quinton de Kock (124 of 130) helped the home side post 287. In reply when India came into bat, KL Rahul departed early. Once again India was looking good to chase the total down when Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli were in the crease.
However, this chase went closer than the other games in the series when Deepak Chahar was pulling things back into India’s favour with the bat after the middle order collapsed. Chahar almost pulled it off but gave his wicket away to N’gidi in the crucial stage of the game after scoring a brilliant 54 off just 34 balls and the tail-enders could not finish the job. Indian skipper KL Rahul said that his team did the same mistakes more than once and that cost them.
“Deepak Chahar 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,” said Rahul at the post-match presentation.
“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 have not built pressure over a long period. Cannot fault the boys for their passion and effort. In terms of skill and understanding the situation – sometimes we have gone wrong. But it happens – we have got some new guys in the team. In the one-day series at times we’ve kept doing the same mistakes. It is early in our journey to the World Cup. We can go back, have some hard conversations,” he added.
Let’s look at some major talking points from this game
Quinton de Kock’s terrific form continues
After taking retirement from Test cricket, The 29-year-old is looking more relaxed as a batsman and his form has improved. It is proving to be a blessing in disguise for South Africa in the limited over format. The wicket-keeper batsman finished as the highest run-getter in the series and took the Man of the Series award.
Rassie van der Dussen is in prime touch
South Africa has got a world-class talent in the middle order as Van der Dussen continues to impress. Another half-century in the third game shows that the Proteas can rely on him when things are getting tough.
Indian middle-order failed again
Once again after a brilliant platform set by Dhawan and Kohli, the middle order could not capitalize. Rishabh Pant went for a duck as Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav failed to convert their starts.
Deepak Chahar’s heroics
Fans must be wondering why Indian team management kept Deepak Chahar out of the first two games. Chahar looked at the top of his game both with the bat and bowl. He took two crucial early wickets with the new ball and almost won the game for his country with the bat.
