'We didn’t get enough wickets in middle overs' - Rishabh Pant on India's ODI series loss against SA

Despite posting a competitive total on the board, Team India suffered a seven-wicket defeat in the second ODI against South Africa at Boland Park in Paarl on Friday with the bowlers failing to provide breakthroughs at regular intervals and unable to contain the run flow.

After the ODI series loss, wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant has explained what went wrong for the visitors in the all-important ODI series decider.

We had enough runs on the board: Rishabh Pant

“The track was slightly on the slower side and at the same time, we had enough runs on the board. In the last match, we chased, and in this match, we batted first, so when they batted, the wicket was much better for batting. In the second innings, it became slower and slower as the game progressed”, said Rishabh Pant during the post-match interview.

“Today, it was the same but they batted well in middle overs that’s why they chased down the target. We didn’t get enough wickets in the middle overs,” he added.

Pant, who had top-scored for India with 85  also credited the South African spinners Keshav Maharaj, Aiden Markram, and Tabraiz Shamsi for bowling better than their Indian counterparts Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal in the two matches and at the same time also gave special mention to the home spinners for being more consistent in their lines and lengths and exploiting the conditions extremely well in their favor.

Coming back to the contest, India lost two quick wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli after the former was involved in a 63-run opening stand with skipper KL Rahul. Rishabh Pant took the attack on the South African bowlers as he and Rahul looked to take India to a formidable total and after both were dismissed, tail-ender Shardul Thakur’s unbeaten 40 propelled the Men In Blue to 287/6 from their 50 overs.

In reply, the hosts started the run chase with positive intent as Quinton de Kock and Janneman Malan stitched a 132-run opening stand. Malan fell agonizingly short of a century when he was bowled by Jasprit Bumrah for 91 but, the middle-order duo of Rassie van der Dussen and Aiden Markram took the Proteas past the finish line in the penultimate over to seal the ODI series 2-0.