South Africa won the third and final ODI of the three-match series against India by four runs at the Newlands in Cape Town on Sunday, thus registering a 3-0 clean sweep. A century from Quinton de Kock helped the hosts put up 287 runs on the board, after which they restricted India to 283 with the visitor’s middle-order once again disappointing. Rohit Sharma and company will look to start afresh when they play their next limited-overs series – they host West Indies for a white-ball series starting February 6. Let us take a look at all the talking points from the third and final ODI.
Quinton de Kock’s classic knock
The South Africa wicketkeeper-batsman scored a top-notch knock of 124 runs in 109 deliveries that helped revive South Africa from 70 for three in 12.2 overs to an eventual target of 287. The century once again proved that de Kock loves batting against India.
He is now joint-second in the list of players with most centuries against India. The list is headed by Sanath Jayasuriya, who hit seven centuries in 85 innings. The second position is held by four batsmen, all of whom have scored six centuries each but in different number of innings. De Kock’s six centuries came in 16 innings, followed by Ab de Villiers (32 innings), Ricky Ponting (59 innings), and Kumar Sangakkara (71 innings). De Kock also became the quickest to 1,000 runs against India in ODIs. The swashbuckling batsman has now played 16 ODI innings against India, from which he has 1,000* runs at an average of 66.67.
Meanwhile, with 17 career tons, de Kock went past Adam Gilchrist to take the second spot for most centuries as a wicketkeeper in ODIs. Heading the list is Sangakkara with 23 tons.
Additionally, De Kock also broke Virender Sehwag’s record for being the quickest batsman to six centuries against a single opponent. While de Kock reached his sixth century against India in 16 innings, Sehwag took 23 innings to score his sixth century against New Zealand.
Rassie van der Dussen and David Miller’s cameo
De Kock was well supported by Rassie van der Dussen and David Miller, both of whom played important knocks to take their side to a competitive total. Der Dussen scored 52 runs that were laced with four boundaries and a maximum, and also shared a century partnership with de Kock. Miller, on the other hand, scored 39 off 38, hitting three boundaries and a maximum. Later, Dwayne Pretorius also chipped in with 20 runs.
A combined effort from India’s bowlers
India’s bowlers did a good job on the entire tour of South Africa, but found little support from the batsmen. In the third and final ODI, Prasidh Krishna and Deepak Chahar were brought into the bowling attack, a decision which proved to be good. While Chahar picked up two wickets, Krishna picked up three. Jasprit Bumrah also picked up two wickets, while Yuzvendra Chahal grabbed one. But eventually, de Kock’s century proved too costly for India.
Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan’s fighting knocks
Virat Kohli scored 65 runs in the third and final ODI, which is his second half-century in the series, having earlier scored 51 off 63 in the series opener in Paarl before registering a duck in the second match. However, the 71st century has still kept Kohli waiting. Shikhar Dhawan, on the other hand, scored 61 off 73, making most of the opportunity that has come his way in absence of an injured Rohit Sharma. Earlier in the first ODI, Dhawan scored a knock of 79 runs. India’s middle order, meanwhile, was a big disappointment. Rishabh Pant was dismissed for a duck, while Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav failed to build on the starts they got.
Deepak Chahar the batsman does it again
If not for Deepak Chahar’s wicket that fell in the first ball of the 47th over, India were going to be the likely winners of the third ODI. The fast bowler scored 54 off just 34 balls, hitting five boundaries and two sixes. But his wicket saw India eventually fall short of the target by only four runs. This was not the first time we saw Chahar put up a fighting performance with the bat. Against Sri Lanka in Colombo last year, the tail-ender scored an unbeaten 69 off 82 which helped India win the game out of nowhere. In Chahar, India now have a dependable bowling all-rounder that could be well in line to play the 2023 World Cup.
Vamika steals the show
The world waited for over a year to see Virat Kohli’s daughter Vamika make her first public appearance, and it happened in the third ODI. Kohli and wife Anushka Sharma did not share any photos of their baby girl on social media in the last one year, but the actor decided to bring her daughter to the Newlands match. Cameras were quick to capture Vamika, with her photo now viral on the internet. Several Twitter users tweeted the photo of the one-year-old, with some calling her a replica of her father. Kohli dedicated his 64th half-century in ODIs with a heartwarming cradle gesture for his daughter.
Rahul Dravid backs captain KL Rahul
KL Rahul led Team India in the absence of Rohit Sharma, but his short captaincy stint is one to forget. However, head coach Rahul Dravid has backed the opener to get better as a captain when the next opportunity arises. While saying that KL did “a good job”, Dravid also emphasized on the fact that the Karnataka cricketer has just started out as a captain and will get better in time.
India lost all four matches that KL captained in, and the new role seemed to have affected his batting too. KL, one of India’s best performers in 2021 across formats, scored 12 and 9 runs respectively in the first and third ODI, although he did score a half-century in the second ODI. It remains to be seen if he still gets to open the innings after the return of Rohit Sharma, or will he be asked to bat in the middle.
