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South Africa captain Temba Bavuma was critical of the side's batting performance against India in the third and final ODI of the series. The Proteas lost the match comprehensively by 9 wickets and recorded a 2-1 defeat in the series. Their display was especially poor in the third match as after being bundled out for 270 runs, they only managed to take a single wicket in almost 40 overs as India totally dominated with the bat.
Bavuma remarked that they wanted to make the series decider ffar more exciting, but failed to do so as they didn't pewrfform well with the bat and weren't able to save wickets when they needed to do so.
"We wanted to make it a lot more exciting. We didn't have enough runs. It gets easier under lights, should've been smarter, save wickets. In the first ten with ball we were better, but they had no scoreboard pressure to work with. Kudos to India's batters who showed their quality. Guys have looked to take on spinners in the first two, conditions were different today," Bavuma said during the post-match ceremony.
"Never want to get all out in a fifty-over game. Couple of starts, QDK got a ton, I lost my way. Should've been smarter and will learn from the experience. We've grown. Got some young players, speak a lot on how we want to play and we've did that. We can only grow. If there were ten boxes, we've ticked off six or seven of them," he added.
South Africa's average all-round display
Meanwhile, after being invited to bat first in the third ODI in Visakhapatnam, South Africa lost opener Ryan Rickelton in the first over itself, but a brilliant partnership between Quinton de Kock and Temba Bavuma turned things around. The former would go on to score a phenomenal century as the Proteas looked set to post a big total.
However, after the fall of Bavuma's wicket for 46, the side would go on to lose wickets on regular intervals. The likes of Matthew Breetzke, Aiden Markram, Dewald Brevis and more failed to perform as they got bowled out for 270. Both Kuldeep Yadav and Prasidh Krishna were the star performers for India in the bowling department, picking up four scalps each.
Indian batters' stunning performance
In reply, India started incredibly strong with openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rohit Sharma forming a fabulous partnership of 155 runs. While Rohit would eventually be dismissed for 75 runs, Jaiswal would go on to score his maiden ODI century and would carry India to victory. He was assisted very well by Virat Kohli who played a sensational inning of 65 runs from just 45 deliveries as the hosts reached the target with 61 deliveries left to spare.
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