Team India’s tour of South Africa ended with disappointment and defeat. In the third and last one-day match on Sunday at the Boland Park in Paarl, South Africa defeated team India by 4 runs and made a clean sweep in the series of all three matches. This is the first time on South African soil that Team India has been eliminated from the series. Chasing the target of 288 runs, the Indian team could only manage to score 283 runs.
In this match, India won the toss and decided to bowl first. Opener Quinton de Kock scored a brilliant century for South Africa and became a player of the match and player of the series. But despite this, the team was all out after scoring 287 runs in 49.5 overs. Where Team India could only score 283 runs in 49.2 overs.
Four changes that didn’t work
Team India made 4 changes in the playing XI, but despite this, the team lost. Spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, pacer Bhubaneshwar Kumar, Shardul Thakur, and Venkatesh Aiyer were replaced by Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, and Jayant Yadav. These changes also could not get the consolation victory for the team.
Fourth defeat under the captaincy of KL Rahul
India suffered its fourth defeat under the captaincy of Rahul. In the second test against South Africa, Rahul had captained and India lost the match. In this series too, India lost all three matches. Rahul didn’t only disappointed with his batting but also only scored a total of 76 runs in three ODIs, including a half-century in this.
Half-centuries of Dhawan, Virat, and Deepak
Captain Rahul disappointed everyone. Although Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli tried to handle the team by sharing 98 runs for the third wicket. Dhawan scored 61 while Virat scored 65 runs. Deepak Chahar scored 54 runs in 34 balls in the lower order, but he couldn’t make team win.