Johannesburg - South Africa were made to pay the price for a sloppy ending to their innings as India tied the three Match One-Day series 1-1 with a comfortable win in Ranchi on Sunday.
The Proteas scored just 57 runs in the last 10 overs of their innings, and as a result fell well short of the 300-run mark, which looked like being a par score on a flat and easy paced track.
India were never under pressure, with Shreyas Iyer’s superb 113 not out and an aggressive 93 from Ishan Kishan guiding India to victory.
The pair took advantage against the harder ball, when scoring was easier but also attacking the South African spinners. It was Shreyas’s second ODI century and with many of the main players in Australia, will have sent a message to the Indian selectors less than a year away from the 50-over World Cup.
🚨 RESULT | INDIA WIN BY 7 WICKETS
— Proteas Men (@ProteasMenCSA) October 9, 2022
A well constructed chase by India saw them chase down the 279-run target with 25 balls to spare and level the 3-match series 1-1#INDvSA #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/mXsdY2couk
He and Ishan shared a partnership of 161 runs for the third wicket, with Shreyas hitting 15 fours while Ishan, better known as a T20 batter, scored 93 off 84 balls, an innings that included four fours and seven sixes.
Ishan struck three of those sixes off Keshav Maharaj’s bowling, two coming in the 21st over, which changed the flow of the Indian innings. The Indians stayed comfortably ahead of the required scoring rate and will head to Delhi for the final match on Tuesday full of confidence.
South Africa’s struggles at the end of their own innings proved extremely costly. They had set up their innings beautifully thanks to a 129-run third wicket partnership between Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks.
Hendricks, who wasn’t picked in the three-match T20 series and missed the opening ODI last Thursday, scored 74, while Markram made 79.
Maharaj captained the team in the absence of Temba Bavuma, who along with Tabraiz Shamsi missed Sunday’s match with what the team’s management described as “mild infection”.
Hendricks and Markram methodically built their partnership. Markram occasionally looked frustrated as a number of good shots were hit straight to fielders. Hendricks was more patient however.
Given his first opportunity since South Africa’s tour to the UK, where his form was outstanding and created a difficult situation for the national selectors, Hendricks played in that stress free elegant manner of his striking nine fours and a six, with two lofted cover drives the highlights of the Proteas innings.
Inevitably, questions will be asked of Bavuma, whose own form - especially in T20s - has fallen off a cliff, just weeks before the Proteas start their campaign in the T20 World Cup.
Besides Bavuma’s form, the manner in which South Africa finished their innings would have been a concern too ahead of that competition. The Markram/Hendricks partnership had provided the perfect launch pad, but Markram’s dismissal which came just three balls after Heinrich Klaasen, who scored 30 off 26 balls, changed the momentum of the innings.
Despite the presence of David MIller, who finished on 35 not out off 34 balls, the Proteas weren’t able to locate the boundary with any regularity in the last 10 overs. They managed just five in that period, one of which came courtesy of an errant throw from Mohammad Siraj that missed the stumps.
Once India had produced a proper partnership the match was effectively over. The defeat all but confirms South Africa won’t be qualifying automatically for next year’s 50 over World Cup and will head to Zimbabwe for the World Cup qualifier tournament in June next year.
Brief scores: South Africa 278/7
India 282/3