Having already won the T20i series. team India continued its run of the consecutive series win by crushing South Africa in the third ODI in Delhi. India’s bowling unit bundled out South Africa for 99 in just 28 overs, which is their lowest ODI total against India and fourth lowest overall.
Indian bowlers, especially spinners Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar and Shahbaz Ahmed did very well grabbing eight wickets between them. Kuldeep took his third four-fer against the Proteas.
This loss has resulted in South Africa ending up at 11th in the Super League table.
As they have already cancelled their ODI series against Australia, South Africa’s chances of direct qualification into the world cup 2024 seem bleak. It must be noted that they have to be in the top 8 to get directly qualified for the upcoming World Cup in India.
Interestingly, South Africa was playing with their third captain David Miller in the three-match ODIs series considering the regular skipper Bavuma, his deputy Maharaj and leggy Shamsi, all were unwell. It was Miller’s first match as an ODI captain.
South Africa Innings
Sundar started bowling along with Siraj. Pitch had help for spinners and de Kock found it difficult to settle.
Malan tried to capitalize over bad deliveries of Siraj initially but soon he was back to the pavilion as he mistimed the next ball to give an easy catch to Avesh Khan at deep square.
Soon Reeza Hendricks was in some trouble as he looked to be plumbed by Avesh Khan’s beautiful delivery. However, he was successfully able to review it as the ball seemed to bite over the stumps. This lifeline didn’t last long as he soon gave the catch on Siraj’s delivery.
South Africa was 28-3 in 10 overs which was their lowest score in the first ten overs since 2008.
Markram, Klassen tried to stay in the crease for a few overs without hitting a boundary but Markram was soon stuck in the spin web of young Shahbaz Nadeem.
Andile Phehlukwayo played on the googly by Kuldeep. Marco Jansen tried to take on Kuldeep and hit him for six but his partner, Klassen was unable to read spin and was bowled on the spinning ball by Shahbaz. The rest of the tail was wiped up by Kuldeep Yadav with him taking four wickets in total.
Jansen tried to take South Africa ahead but eventually got dismissed with the team hardly making 99 runs.
India Innings
India in reply took a brisk start and openers added 42 runs in the first 37 balls. Bowlers were unable to get the opener in the wicket column. Eventually, the batters’ mix-up did and Dhawan was out on the score of 8 runs. This series had been forgettable for the star Indian batter. He hasn’t touched 50 in his last five matches.
Ishan Kishan didn’t capitalize on his previous match form and got out cheaply at the score of just 10 runs. However, the top run-getter for Team India, Iyer showed some maturity and marched comfortably toward victory with Gill. Gill scored 49, the top score for Indian innings, and fell one short of 50 before getting dismissed.
Kuldeep Yadav won the Player of the Match award while Siraj was adjudged Player of the Series.
Spin problems for South Africa
South Africa’s weak against spin was quite openly exposed and it has left a few questions about their performance in the upcoming t20 World Cup.
As Proteas are grouped along with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and might see Sri Lanka as well after the qualifiers, it won’t be easy for them. However, Australian pitches might not support spin that much.
Siraj making a strong claim for the world cup spot
With the brilliant performance in the concluded series, Mohammed Siraj has made a strong claim for his conclusion in the upcoming world cup. With Bumrah out of the team due to injury, he and Shami are the frontrunners for the spot. While Shami has still not played any t20i or limited over international for long, Siraj has done reasonably well in the series and bagged the player of the series award. It will be interesting to see what selectors and team management want in the next few days.
