India won the series against South Africa with the help of maintained bowling and with proper batting dominance by the top order. Yashasvi Jaiswal scored his maiden ODI century, and Rohit and Virat both put hit fifties and ended the match with 61 balls remaining. India finally won the toss after 20 matches and opted to bowl first; both sides made changes from their previous eleven. India went with Tilak Varma in place of Washington Sundar. Tilak made his ODI comeback after 2 years.
Concerns with dew were one of the main talking points of this series, so it was a no-brainer for the teams that chasing would help in these types of conditions. In the last five matches in Vishakhapatnam, all teams that batted in the second chased down the totals to win the matches, and now the list will be extended after this match.
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South Africa failed to score big despite De Kock’s century
Batting first, South Africa was only able to put 270 runs on the board. Aiden Markram did not come to open the innings; he provided his place to Ryan Rickelton, who came in place of the injured Tony de Zorzi and got out for a duck. After this, De Kock took charge of the innings, and De Kock smashed a cracking century, scoring 106 runs in 89 balls with the help of 6 sixes and 8 fours at a strike rate of 119.10. Last match stars Breetzke and Bravis did not help that much with the bat; Aiden Markram also departed, scoring 1 run. After this, the innings shattered, and no one was really able to stand.
Prasidh-Kuldeep took 4 wickets
The bad performers from the last match, Prasidh Krishna and Kuldeep Yadav, came back strongly in this match. They each took 4 wickets in this match. Kuldeep Yadav also went economical, conceding runs at a rate of 4.10 per over. Harshit Rana did not get any wickets, and Arshdeep Singh and Jadeja took 1 wicket each.
Rohit, Yashasvi, and Kohli powered the Indian batting
The Kohli storm is not ready to stop as Virat Kohli again goes big today. He came to bat when Rohit departed after scoring 75 runs. Rohit and Yashashvi formed a 155-run stand. Rohit got out on a delivery from Keshav Maharaj, who was the only wicket-taker of this match for the Proteas. After falling short in the first two innings, Yashasvi shut all the controversies by scoring a dominant hundred. He made 116 runs in 121 balls with the help of 12 fours and two sixes. South African bowlers tried to do well, but it was just the day for mighty Indian batters. Yashasvi was awarded Man of the Match, and Kohli, who scored 65 runs in this match, with a strike rate of 144.44, won the Man of the Series award. Kohli has scored 302 runs in this series with an average of 151.
The 5-match T20I series will start on 9th December.
