Image Credit- AP
India won the three-match ODI series against South
Africa by 78 runs at Boland Park thanks to a dominant maiden ODI century from
Sanju Samson and a smooth bowling combo between Arshdeep Singh and Washington
Sundar.
Samson’s first century for India gave the team a
commanding 296 for 8 in the first innings, but with Tony de Zorzi batting, the
target looked doable for South Africa. Despite South Africa losing Reeza
Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen early in the innings, he scorched 81 in 87
balls to keep the hosts on track and the runs coming in.
Before being dismissed in the 30th over by Arshdeep’s
yorker, he hit six fours and three sixes. After a brilliant bowling showing,
Arshdeep concluded with 4 for 30, having removed Hendricks with the new ball
and Keshav Maharaj and Lizaad Williams in his final session. He made up for his
initial lack of control with the new ball later on, when he got it to nip over
to the right-handers.
Playing in the last One-Day International (ODI)
without Kuldeep Yadav, Washington bowled neatly on a pitch that encouraged
spin, taking out Wiaan Mulder. More crucially, though, Aiden Markram was caught
behind trying to reverse sweep for 36. Four overs before de Zorzi was removed,
Markram’s wicket in the 26th over signalled the beginning of the collapse that
the hosts were never able to recover from.
After David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen were removed
by Avesh Khan and Mukesh Kumar, respectively, South Africa went from 131 for 3
to 192 for 7 in 12.1 overs. In addition to Arshdeep’s match-winning
performance, Washington concluded with 2 for 38, even outscoring his senior
spin partner Axar Patel (1 for 48).
moved up to No. 3 for the last over, and Tilak Verma
teamed up to provide stability throughout the middle overs. Their partnership
of 116 runs in 136 balls saw the innings through a challenging phase where
scoring runs was challenging due to the sluggish surface and accurate spin
bowling of Maharaj and Markram.
In the early going of their partnership, Tilak’s
troubles also starved Samson of strike, but Samson did not lose patience in
developing his innings, relieving the pressure with the odd boundary to keep
India moving.
After attempting to hit Lizaad Williams for a century,
Samson was eventually out for 108 in the 46th over, despite having a
strike-rate of nearly 95. Nevertheless, his century laid the stage for some
late pyrotechnics. That came from Rinku Singh, who hit 38 off of 27 balls, and
Washington and Arshdeep, who combined for 21 off of 11 deliveries, who both
contributed skillfully with the bat. As a result, India reached 296 for 8,
including 164 in the final 20 overs, a total that seemed high considering the surface
available.