India’s stand-in captain Shikhar Dhawan was proud of the way his team played in the ODI series against South Africa. India won the third ODI convincingly by seven wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Tuesday to clinch the series 2-1.
Indian bowlers were able to hit the straps after Shikhar Dhawan won the important toss and decided to bowl first. Mohammed Siraj, Shahbaz Ahmed, and Washington Sundar took two wickets each whereas Kuldeep Yadav scalped four wickets to bundle out the Proteas at 99, which is their second-lowest total in the ODI format while batting first.
Dhawan believes the young players were able to show their character in the crucial stages of the match. In fact, the young Indian team was under a bit of pressure after losing the first ODI by nine runs. However, they were able to bounce back stronger after winning the next two games comprehensively to seal the series.
Shikhar Dhawan said in the post-match presentation, “I am proud of the boys, the way they played in the series. The way they carried the responsibility and showed maturity. Would like to thank the support staff. We showed a lot of character in the first game, we dropped a few catches, but we never really put pressure on ourselves. We tried to stick to the process. I am enjoying the journey, I’ll try to keep performing well for my team. The boys showed great character on such tough batting pitches. The bowlers were clinical today.”
On the other hand, Shubman Gill top-scored with 49 runs but missed out on his fifty when he was plumbed in front of the wickets by Lungi Ngidi. Gill was disappointed with the way he got out but gave credit to the bowlers for their fine bowling throughout the series.
Gill said after the match, “Quite disappointed by the way I got out. But all learnings from the series – the way we were down and the way we came back was tremendous. The bowlers did a great job in this series. Really pleasing series for us. There were a lot of young players including myself. The way we came back showed we have the character that it takes. The talk was just to express ourselves and trust the process. Doesn’t matter what the result is. Exciting times for us with the 50-over Asia Cup coming up. And the WC being here in India, definitely a lot of excitement around.”
