South Africa vs India, 2021-22: 3rd ODI – Who Said What

Another day and another defeat for Team India! This South African tour certainly turned out to be horrendous for the Men in Blue. After suffering a heart-breaking 1-2 defeat in the Test series, India put up a horrendous show in the ODI leg and suffered a 3-0 clean sweep. South Africa held their nerves and recorded a four-run win in the third and final ODI, ending India’s miserable tour with another loss.

Earlier in the game, South Africa were skittled out for 288 while batting first at the Newlands in Cape Town. Wicketkeeper and opener Quinton de Kock slammed a fine century to give his side a perfect start. While Rassie van der Dussen also scored a half-century, the lower middle-order couldn’t contribute much. Thanks to a handy 39-run knock from David Miller, the hosts managed to post a substantial total on the board.

Deepak Chahar’s efforts go in vain

Chasing the challenging total, India lost skipper KL Rahul with just 18 runs on the board. Nevertheless, Shikhar Dhawan joined forces with former skipper Virat Kohli and the duo added 98 runs for the second wicket. Just when India looked right in command, fall of regular wickets put the hosts on the driver’s seat. Deepak Chahar then generated some hopes with a quickfire half-century. However, his efforts weren’t just enough as South Africa won by four runs.

Winning skipper, Temba Bavuma said:

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.

Losing skipper, KL Rahul said:

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.

Player of the match and Player of the series, Quinton de Kock said:

Wasn’t flat at all (the pitch). Was a wicket where you’re never quite in. Came back, had a week of training in Paarl. First game – just trying to find some rhythm. Was still trying to find my feet and then in the second ODI found my rhythm. Get home now for some daddy duties.