IND vs SA 3rd ODI: South Africa clean sweep India

(Info4now, January 23, 2022)- South Africa beat India by 4 runs at Newlands in IND vs SA 3rd ODI, as Deepak Chahar’s fantastic fifty was not enough to get over the line. With 288 to chase, India were always in the game but fell short of the target against sharp Temba Bavuma. Even India lose the final contest, it’s for the first time in the ODI series, they play as a unit.

K.L.Rahul wins the toss and elects to field. It’s a good decision not only for utilizing the surface, but also for reading the batting in the first half. India are suffering from a crisis in a good bowling unit in the white ball format, and it’s why they avoid defending anything around 300. South Africa were excellent with the bat so far and were rightly sent to bat first. 

India have bowled well today. South Africa were 212-5 at the end of 35th over and it looked 320 plus for the host. But against a high class innings of 124 from Quinton de Kock, India continue taking wickets. Bumrah and Chahal have been excellent throughout the game. Both Deepak Chahar and Prasidh Krishna try their best as right replacements for Shardul Thakur and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. 

Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan build an excellent partnership for the second wicket. As Phehlukwayo breaks the partnership, Rishabh Pant plays a horrible shot in the very first ball and gets trapped at long on. India continue losing wickets after that in the form of Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav. Virat Kohli again yields to a Maharaj delivery. He was batting extremely well, but Maharaj beats him, this time, with the extra bounce of Newlands.

Bavuma was excellent on the field. He makes a real difference in this ODI series. He brings Markram late in the game, giving his pace stars more time on this hard surface. Then an experienced Maharaj continues to check the run rate and hurries into Kohli’s defence. Bavuma brings Pretorius back for a breakthrough as Suryakumar gets settled on the wicket.

With Suryakumar’s return to the pavilion, Deepak Chahar sows hope for Team India. He comes to the crease with 93 to win from 77 deliveries. With an exceptional batting performance down the order, he brings it down to 10 from 18. South Africa keep their nerve and strike late to pick the remaining three and sweep the series clean 3-0.