South Africa vs India 2018: 6th ODI, Hits and Misses
The Indian team under the strong leadership of Virat Kohli might have lost the Test series against South Africa, but have more than made up for that in the six-match ODI series that followed. They steamrolled the hosts almost throughout and snatched the series 5-1.
In the sixth and final match of the series, the Men in Blue outperformed Aiden Markram's men in all three aspects of the game and put forth a clinical performance, to clinch victory with 8 wickets remaining.
After winning the toss and choosing to field first, the visitors dismissed the hosts for just 204 in 46.5 overs. After that, it was one-way traffic for the former, as Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane took them to the target in just 32.1 overs.
Here are the hits and misses from the game.
#5 Hit: Shardul Thakur
The right-arm medium pacer was picked into the playing XI in place of Bhuvneshwar Kumar for the game. He made full use of the single opportunity that he received and scalped four Proteas wickets in his spell of 8.5 overs.
He started with fire and dismissed both the opening batsmen in the batting powerplay. He was the only Indian bowler to draw blood until then.
Thakur was brought back into the attack in the middle overs, where he stepped up once again. He bowled a delivery wide outside off-stump, which was cut to third-man by Farhaan Behardien, and was converted into a wicket courtesy a riveting catch from Jasprit Bumrah.
The last wicket of the innings, that of Andile Phelukwayo, was also scalped by the 26-year-old in the 47th over. Thakur ended the match with exceptional figures of four for 52 in 8.5 overs.