4 reasons why South Africa lost against India
The tale continued for South Africa as they lost yet another game in this year's World Cup. There is something between them and ICC events that they just never seem to perform to their abilities in these events.
After suffering two losses against the hosts England and the underdogs Bangladesh, they faced India, probably the most difficult team to make a comeback against. Things are getting worse for them day by day as they are yet to open their account in the points table even after playing 3 games. Let's look at the main talking points of today's match.
#1 Poor Fielding
Something that has always been South Africa's strength is fielding. But this is exactly what let them down today. Faf du Plessis, one of the best fielder in the world at the moment dropped a catch in the second over itself, giving a life to Rohit Sharma at 1, who went on to add 121 runs more to his tally. David Miller dropped a sitter in the 44th over and gave Rohit Sharma another life on 107. Many other opportunities were also missed by South Africa and it was clearly visible that it just wasn't their day in the field.
#2 Bad Decision at the toss
Faf made a decision to bat first today which backfired badly. The pitch was difficult to bat on in the beginning and it was exploited really well by the Indian seamers. Rabada could have got a lot out of the wicket in the first innings but it was not the case today.
This decision came as a surprise to many but considering that South Africa had lost their first couple games while chasing, it appeared as if they wanted to change their strategy a bit. Their batting against spin was also very poor. Phehlukwayo and van der Dussen just threw their wickets away at crucial stages of the match.
#3 Kohli's Bowling Changes
While the bowling unit of India was exceptional, some credit has to be given to Virat Kohli as well. The way he rotated his bowlers is worth a praise. Kohli saw that ball is seaming so he gave 5 overs to Bumrah in the first powerplay itself. India's biggest strength has been their spin department and they were used at the perfect time by Kohli. In addition, he gave the ball to Hardik and Jadhav at very appropriate moments of the game which did not make the figures of 5th bowler bad.
#4 Resilience of the Indian Batsmen
Small targets are tricky sometimes as you don't know what is the right time to accelerate but today it was not the case. The Indian batsmen paced the innings perfectly and no one showed any kind of hurry. Rohit Sharma scored a brilliant hundred and showed that the current team is not overly dependent on Virat Kohli. The solidity of KL Rahul and MS Dhoni are huge positives for India going forward in the competition.
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