12 October,2022 08:02 AM IST | New Delhi | Santosh Suri
Team India after their ODI series win against South Africa at the Kotla. Pics/PTI
It was a series-deciding match that had promised much, but fizzled out into a virtual no-contest.
Who would have thought that the South Africans would manage just 99, their lowest ODI score against India, on a Ferozshah Kotla pitch that was supposed to be full of runs? And although India lost three wickets on the way, getting to the meagre target did not take much effort. With the convincing seven-wicket win, India bagged the ODI series 2-1, coming back strongly after losing the first game in Lucknow.
In the end, even the second-string Indian team proved too much for South Africa as it brought to the fore their tendency to be inconsistent. They play like champions one day and like novices on the other.
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It was the novice side that was on display as none of their batsmen could bat long enough to help the team's cause. Only three batsmen managed to get into double-digit scores, Heinrich Klaasen (34), Janneman Malan (15) and Marco Jansen (14), and that's the reason things went wrong for them.
It was a huge setback for South Africa. They were required to win the ODI series to give their chances of a direct entry into the next year's World Cup a boost. But that did not happen. The other immediate setback will be to their morale as they fly off to Australia on Thursday for the T20 World Cup, having lost both the T20I and ODI series in India.
There can be no denying that it was a superlative performance by the Indian bowlers, who kept up the pressure on the South African batsmen and picked up wickets regularly.
It was Washington Sundar and Mohammed Siraj who made early inroads. Then, Shahbaz Ahmed made double dents in the middle and Kuldeep Yadav finally cleaned up the innings. Yadav picked up four wickets and although they were all tailenders, it will give a big boost to his career after being hampered by injuries in the recent past.
Equally impressive was Siraj, who bowled with a lot of verve and picked a brace of wickets. This performance could well have made him one of the top contenders to replace Jasprit Bumrah in the World Cup squad.
And with an impressive Sundar too grabbing two wickets at the top, that's when South Africa's problems started from where they could never recover. The chase was led by Shubman Gill, who was unlucky to miss a half-century. He batted with confidence and authority to ensure India did not have major hiccups during the chase.
Also impressive was Shreyas Iyer, who finished off things with a superb six to remain unbeaten on 28. Overall, it was a memorable series for the second-string Indian team and a disappointing one for the South Africans.
Brief scores
South Africa 99 all out in 27.1 overs (H Klaasen 34; K Yadav 4-18, W Sundar 2-15, M Siraj 2-17) lost to India 105-3 in 19.1 overs (S Gill 49; B Fortuin 1-20) by seven wickets
