Cape Town: India failed to avoid a series whitewash against a South African team in transition despite Deepak Chahar’s scintillating 34-ball 54, losing the third One-day International by four runs here on Sunday to end a disastrous tour of the ‘Rainbow Nation’.Having taken two wickets with the ball, Chahar blazed away with the bat and hit five fours and two sixes, but his effort was not enough in the end.
All in all, the limited overs series turned out to be one of the most disappointing outings for India in recent years, especially after having blanked the Proteas in their backyard in 2018.
India were last clean swept in an away ODI series by New Zealand (0-3) in 2020 under Virat Kohli.
Incidentally, Rohit Sharma was absent from that series too, with a hamstring injury.
On Sunday, Kohli made a 65 off 84 balls, while opener Shikhar Dhawan struck a 73-ball 61, both scoring their second fifties of the three-match series. And it should have been India’s game as it seemed for a good part but the side simply bungled it in the closing stages despite being well ahead on the asking rate thanks to Chahar’s blitzkrieg.
Earlier, India rallied to bowl out South Africa under 300 after de Kock and van der Dussen’s blazing knocks.
De Kock struck 124 off 130 balls and added 144 runs for the fourth wicket with van der Dussen before India put the brakes on the home team’s scoring by sending back both the batters in quick succession.
After that, David Miller contributed a 38-ball 39 before the innings ended with a ball to spare.
With his sixth ODI century, de Kock equalled AB de Villiers’ record of scoring the most hundreds against India by a South African.
KL Rahul’s decision to bowl first worked straightaway as Deepak Chahar (2/53) had opener Janneman Malan (1) caught behind with just eight runs on the board at the start of the third over.
It was a big wicket for the Indians as Malan came into the inconsequential final ODI on the back of a neat 91-run knock in the Proteas’ series-clinching second ODI win at Paarl.
Asked to take first strike, South Africa were all out for 287 after Quinton de Kock’s attacking hundred and Rassie van der Dussen’s fluent half-century. In reply, India were all out for 283 in 49.2 overs, completely mis-handling a chase that should have been completed smoothly.
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.’