Half-centuries from Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan and Deepak Chahar went in vain on Sunday as India lost the third and final ODI against South Africa, played at Newlands in Cape Town, by a narrow margin of 4 runs as the home team completed an impressive 3-0 series clean sweep having earlier clinched the three-match Test series for the Freedom Trophy 2-1.
The two teams were also supposed to play three T20 Internationals but these matches were already postponed as India arrived one week late in the African nation owing to the challenges thrown in their way by the coronavirus pandemic.
The defeat on Sunday night was India's fifth consecutive on the tour which started with a lot of promise as the visitors won the first test at Centurion by a margin of 113 runs, but lost the next five games to end a tour with a plenty of disappointment amid off-field controversy raging on concerning the former captain Virat Kohli and the current cricket board chief Sourav Ganguly.
Quinton de Kock was the star performer for South Africa on Sunday as he struck a brilliant 124 to lift the home team to a competitive 287 in 49.5 overs. In reply, India seemed to be cruising towards the target when Kohli and opening batsman Dhawan brought up their respective half-centuries, while adding 98 runs for the second wicket to keep India on track.
But once again, a flurry of wickets in the middle overs derailed India. Kohli perished after making 65 from 84 balls with five boundaries to top score for his side, followed by Dhawan, who made 61 from 73 balls with five boundaries and one six. The failure of the middle-order batsman Rishabh Pant (0) and Shreyas Iyer (26) applied a lot of pressure on the lower order, and even though the likes of Suryakumar Yadav (39) and Deepak Chahar 54 provided later assistance, South Africa were able to clinch the game with a narrow win.
For the second time in as many matches, the right-arm seamer Chahar give a strong performance with the bat to lift India to what looked like an unlikely win turning into a real possibility. But with 10 runs more to score from the last 3 overs, Chahar played a shot in the air, beaten by the slow pace of Ngidi, and the remaining batsmen could not take India past the finish line.
India were bowled out for 283 from 49.2 overs with Ngidi returning with 10-0-58-3 whereas Andile Phehlukwayo producing the best spell for South Africa with figures of 7-0-40-3. Playing his first match of the series, Dwaine Pretorius took 2/54 from his 9.4 overs whereas Sisanda Magala and Keshav Maharaj both took one wicket each.
India earlier announced as many as four changes to their playing XI, bringing in the likes of Suryakumar, Chahar, Jayant Yadav and Prasidh Krishna against Venkatesh Iyer, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravichandran Ashwin and Shardul Thakur.
Chahar certainly did not make India feel the absence of Thakur who has been a revelation with the bat as well as the ball for India in recent matches. Chahar made 54 from only 34 balls with 5 boundaries and 2 sixes to take India close to victory, which was well within the reach but the last pair in Yuzvendra Chahal and Krishna could not accomplish.
The star of the day, however, was South Africa wicket-keeper batsman de Kock once again proved to be India's nemesis in the bath. On a pitch which was expected to surprise batsmen with spongy bounce, de Kock made a fluent century, cracking 12 boundaries and 2 sixes to make 124 from 130 balls to single-handedly need the demolition job against India.
South Africa middle-order batsman Rassie van der Dussen continued to plunder runs, having scored 129 and 37 out out in the previous two matches of the series. The right-handed batsman made 52 from 59 balls with 4 boundaries and a six to once again give a strong impression of himself, having failed to do so earlier in the Test series.
India lost all five matches on the tour after winning the first Test by 113 runs. While their batsmen once again cut a sorry figure playing overseas and without Kohli in his best form, the bowlers too have a lot to work on.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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