South African flamboyant batter Aiden Markram gave credit to the Indian bowlers and feels they bowled really well in the second ODI at the JSCA International Cricket Complex, Ranchi on Sunday. India was able to keep the Proteas to 278 runs after the visitors’ stand-in captain Keshav Maharaj won the toss and decided to bat first.
Markram stated that Indian bowlers didn’t give them any freebies, especially at the fag end of the innings. South Africa could only manage 57 runs in the final 10 overs of the innings as even an in-form David Miller could not get going.
Markram was dismissed in the 39th over and he rued the fact that he could not add the finishing touches for the team despite being a settled batsman at the crease. The stylish batter scored 79 runs off 89 balls and added 129 runs with Reeza Hendricks, who scored 74 runs, for the third wicket.
Mohammed Siraj was the pick of the bowlers as he scalped three wickets and conceded only 38 runs in his quota of 10 overs.
”They (India) bowled well, they did not give us any freebies. Whenever a team goes bang-bang, the fielding team all of a sudden gets that momentum in their corner. Myself getting out at that time of the innings was, maybe, where we left that 15-20 runs short,” Markram said after India leveled the three-match series.
It was a slow and low pitch and the run-scoring for difficult for the South African batters as Indian bowlers were right on the money in the death overs.
”I would have liked to take it 10 overs deeper and be there in the last five overs and try and cash in, maybe that’s where we fell short.” David Miller, who has been in imperious form on the tour with unbeaten knocks of 106 and 75 in the Guwahati T20I and Lucknow ODI respectively, too found the going tough in the death overs.
”You have got David Miller in the form of his life and if he’s struggling to hit it out of the park it tells you something about two things — they bowled really well and the conditions were really tough,” Markram said.
Markram feels they were able to put a decent score on the board as the conditions were not easy.
”The partnership was doing well and it’s nice to have spent time in the middle. A lot of credit goes to Rezza for being able to keep the runs flowing from the other end.
”The wicket was slightly drier but we managed to put up a decent score,” he said. ”If we look at the conditions we thought we were happy at 280 and it would have been defendable,” Markram said.
The third ODI will be played in Delhi on Tuesday.
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