Twitter Reactions: South Africa keep nerves to win the thriller by four runs and make it 3-0 against India

Well, it was a case of so near yet so far for India! When there were no hopes, Deepak Chahar brought the visitors very close to the victory only to play a needless shot with 10 runs needed and South Africa pounced on the opportunity. India fell four runs short of what would’ve been a morale boosting win for them. But the Proteas played superbly throughout the series to affect a stunning whitewash on India.

Earlier, after being put in to bat first, Quinton de Kock starred for South Africa scoring his sixth century in ODIs against India. The visitors started off well early on with Deepak Chahar swinging the ball beautifully to dismiss Janneman Malan while Temba Bavuma too was caught short of his crease by KL Rahul. At 34/2 in the 7th over which soon became 70/3 in the 13th, India seemed to have got on top, not for the first time in the series.

But De Kock stood tall playing an aggressive knock. He played a free slowing strokes continuing his good show against India while stitching a crucial partnership with Rassie van der Dussen. The southpaw was in amazing touch on the day and didn’t let the Men in Blue dominate the proceedings especially in the middle overs. The Indian spinners once again didn’t seem to trouble the opposition batters.

Rassie van der Dussen yet again looked solid in his approach. He played a perfect second fiddle to De Kock keeping the run-rate abreast. The 144-run partnership was finally by none other than Jasprit Bumrah in the 36th over. He sent back his Mumbai Indians teammate for 124 runs off 130 balls. Van der Dussen reached his fifty but was soon dismissed.

South Africa stuttered a bit but David Miller’s 39 and Dwaine Pretorius’s 20 helped them to post a decent total on the board. India came back well in the last 10 overs of the innings to restrict the hosts to 287. In fact, South Africa were bundled out with one ball to go in their innings. Prasidh Krishna was good in the final few overs for India returning with the figures of 3/59.

Deepak Chahar’s enterprising fifty goes in vain

A chase of 288 was never going to be easy for India and their skipper KL Rahul getting out early made things tougher for them. However, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli yet again showed their class to put the team into ascendancy. The latter especially looked fluent once again proving that his duck in the last ODI was only a blip. Both the batters scored freely keeping India afloat in the chase.

Both of them scored half-centuries as well. But yet again, none kicked on to make a big one. Dhawan was dismissed for 61 with Andile Phehlukwayo breaking 98-run partnership. Virat Kohli smashed his 64th ODI fifty without breaking a sweat and for the umpteenth time since November 2019, he looked like reaching his 71st international ton.

However, Keshav Maharaj got his number for the second consecutive time in the series when Kohli was batting 65. In between, Rishabh Pant‘s different version took over as he threw away his wicket off the first. India were suddenly struggling in the chase. A couple of partnerships threatened to flourish but none assured the visitors a victory with Shreyas Iyer not converting his start.

Suryakumar Yadav was very much aggressive during his 39 off 32 but got out at the wrong time to leave the team reeling at 210/6. The score soon became at 223/7 in the 43rd over and this is when Deepak Chahar took control of the proceedings. The man showed off his impeccable skills with the bat and calculated the chase well. Jasprit Bumrah supported him really well as the 55-run partnership turned the game on its head.

Deepak also reached his half-century off just 30-odd deliveries. But when India needed 10 runs from last three overs, he hoicked one in the air only to lose his wicket. The equation came down to 8 runs off the last two overs and even Bumrah got out in the 49th over with India needing six runs off the last over. But it wasn’t to be for the visitors as Yuzvendra Chahal got out off the second ball. India fell only four runs short in the end to concede a whitewash in the ODI series.

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