Talking about Sunday’s game, KL Rahul said Deepak Chahar gave India hope with his whirlwind knock.
India captain KL Rahul on Sunday (January 23) attributed the 0-3 drubbing in the ODI series against South Africa to a collective failure and said there is no shying away from the fact that the visitors have ‘gone wrong’. India failed to avoid a series whitewash despite Deepak Chahar’s scintillating 34-ball 54, losing the third ODI by four runs here to end a disastrous tour of the ‘Rainbow Nation’.
India had earlier lost the three-match Test series 1-2 against South Africa. “Quite obvious where we’ve gone wrong. No shying away from it. At times our shot selection has been poor. Even with the ball we haven’t been hitting the right areas consistently. Have played well in patches but haven’t built pressure over a long period,” Rahul said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“Can’t fault the boys for the passion and effort. In terms of skill and understanding the situation – sometimes we’ve gone wrong. But it happens – we’ve got some new guys in the team. In the one-day series at times we’ve kept doing the same mistakes. It’s early in our journey to the World Cup. We can go back, have some hard conversations. Have had a great time in South Africa. Have been looked after really well. We’ve shown a lot of fight.”
Talking about Sunday’s game, Rahul said Chahar gave India hope with his whirlwind knock. “Deepak gave us a real chance of winning the game. Quite an exciting game, just disappointed we ended up on the losing side. We gave ourselves a real chance, something we can learn from and get better,” he said.
South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma said he was happy to prove their critics wrong after what he termed “mission accomplished” for the underrated Proteas. “Got a bit crazy at the end. Probably the complacency got to us. Guys tried a couple of things that didn’t come off. Very satisfying, mission accomplished for us. Many people didn’t give us much of a chance. Hope through our performances, we’ve been able to get a couple of supporters. Making good strides as a team. Challenge is to get better and better,” he said.
The Proteas skipper heaped praise on Quinton de Kock, who hit a 130-ball 124 after opening the innings. De Kock was ably supported by Rassie van der Dussen, who made 52 off 59 balls.
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“Quinton’s been great. Rassie as well with the bat. He’s been tremendous. His game starting to move to the next level. Bowling’s been decent. This was a big challenge, a big obstacle in our journey. To come out the way we did – winning Tests, winning ODIs convincingly will do a world of good. What pleased me most – if you look at the Test series, feel like it’s the hardest series I’ve been part of. Indian bowlers asking questions regularly. Even in the field the intensity. Physically we’ve been challenged – it’s been very hot the last couple of weeks,” he said.
De Kock, who was adjudged player of the tournament as well as player of the match, said: “It wasn’t flat at all (the pitch). Was a wicket where you’re never quite in. Came back, had a week of training in Paarl. First game – was just trying to find some rhythm. I was still trying to find my feet and then in the second ODI, found my rhythm.”
(with PTI inputs)
