AB de Villiers criticises batsmen for their poor show in the 2nd ODI
The South African team's limited over captain AB de Villiers criticised his batting line-up for the poor show against India in the second one-day international, reports ESPNcricinfo. De Villiers thought the target was gettable and his batsmen should have won the match easily.
India handed over South Africa their first defeat on the tour after defending 248 runs target successfully at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was declared Ma-of-the-Match for his match-saving and unbeaten 92 runs knock.
"It's up to the top seven to win games for us especially when we chase totals which we feel are below par; 240 was below par," De Villiers said. "There are certain games in one-day cricket where the tail-enders need to chip in and I thought they chipped in pretty well today. I can't blame them. It's the top seven's responsibility to chase it down. With experience like that we should be finishing games."
The visitors did start the chase on a positive note with openers Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock timing the ball comfortably initially. In no time, the Proteas were 40 for no loss after the sixth over and things started to look dizzy for India.
Bowling change was made and Axar Patel brought into the attack. While trying to charge ahead and hit, Amla missed the outside off ball and Dhoni, in no time, took the bails off to dismiss the opener.
After that, India started to tackle more hard, they didn't leave any room for the Proteas to come back in the game. De Villiers thought the breaking of opening partnership between Amla and De Kock changed the course of the match for them.
"The turning point was the breaking of the partnerships - Hashim and Quinton started really well, then India broke through there and JP and Faf batted really well and there was another breakthrough. We didn't make any of our partnerships count so we have ourselves to blame," he said.
Swashbuckling batsman David Miller hasn't been at his best till now on this tour. He got out on a duck in the second match and his performance was questioned by many critics.
De Villiers defended the young cricketer by saying that Miller has performed well during the team's World Cup outing and he shouldn't be questioned because of 2-3 bad games.
"David Miller has had a couple of not so good games but he had a really good World Cup which was only four games ago so people shouldn't be too harsh on him. I think he is still an amazing player. He almost single-handedly won us the semi-final in the World Cup and that is only four ODIs ago," the skipper said.
The five-match ODI series is levelled now at 1-1 with three more matches to go. Next match will be played in Rajkot on October 18.