"Tera kaam hogaya tu jaa" - Fans slam Indian skipper KL Rahul as South Africa comprehensively win ODI series
Team India continued their disappointing run by losing the second ODI in the three-match series. Courtesy of the win, South Africa now have an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the series.
Batting first, India set a decent target of 288 for the hosts on a slow and turning wicket. However, Proteas opener Quinton de Kock (78) unleashed an array of aggressive strokes in the powerplay to put his team in the driver's seat early in the chase.
Team India could never recover after the onslaught from the South African wicket-keeper batter. Shardul Thakur gave the visitors a semblance of hope by dismissing De Kock in the 22nd over and breaking the 132-run opening partnership.
Janneman Malan (91), Temba Bavuma (35), Rassie van der Dussen (37*), and Aiden Markram (37*) then helped South Africa cruise to victory with 11 balls to spare.
All the bowlers except Jasprit Bumrah (1/37) failed to make an impact in the second innings. Fans were extremely disappointed after witnessing a timid performance from Team India for the second consecutive ODI game.
They took to Twitter to express the same. KL Rahul's captaincy was also not well received by many on the micro-blogging site.
Here are some of the fan reactions after India's loss in the second ODI:
In Last 60 Years
KL Rahul ~ 1st Indian Captain to Lose his 1st 3 matches
#INDvsSA https://t.co/10tgqkUXQp
Only two things to cheer about for India. Bumrah is in a different league and Pant produced an innings of great class.
Indian fans to Kl Rahul:
#SAvIND
#INDvsSA https://t.co/7ZFzkK8bVq
#INDvsSA #KLRahul https://t.co/Vh3xYGS6n5
Not blaming him in any way for loss today..but never liked KL Rahul's captaincy and his weird bowling changes even in #IPL. #indvssa
#KLRahul #Captain #PBKS https://t.co/dJ8kMxiD8H
Indian team with Rohit Sharma
Indian team without Rohit Sharma https://t.co/rSyGNAe5ik
Bowled better. Batted better. Well, India might have fielded/caught better but it didn’t matter in the end. 0-2. #SAvInd
If someone had told me that India would begin 2022 with defeats in Test and ODI series in South Africa, I would have just laughed at that prediction. But, cricket Hai. Still tough to digest results. #CricketTwitter #SAvsIND
From loosing bcs of playing 45 mins of bad cricket to only playing 45 mins of good cricket, Forget ICC trophies, india have won only 55% of the ODIs they have played since 2019 World cup.. #INDvsSA #BCCI #rahul #ICT
Welcome to kings XI India under Kl Rahul's captaincy
#INDvsSA #SAvIND @BCCI
KL Rahul: I am not a captaincy material(no hate to KL)
Ganguly and Jay Shah: https://t.co/XuPHSncknU
Remember in a first South Africa’s spinners have out bowled India’s, this is a stark reminder of the problems that India faces in their bowling especially in ODI #cricket #SAvInd
Useless selection committee, useless coach, useless captain and useless team, this is the reason why Team India is 💩💩💩💩 in South Africa.
These lousy people will bring Team India to a situation like Sri Lanka, There is no power in batting and bowling, crap! #BCCIPolitics https://t.co/yu5IkU2lOF
KL Rahul is a great captain and we need him as IPL advisor,BCCI President & also as future Prime Minister of India !
#BCCIPolitics
#INDvSA
KL Rahul is a great captain and we need him as IPL advisor,BCCI President & also as future Prime Minister of India !
#BCCIPolitics
#INDvSA
Indian Cricket Team playing as if they are in a secure government job. #SAvIND #BCCIPolitics #KLRahul #TeamIndia
Kl Rahul's captaincy is work in progress.
His many decisions today were questionable.
1. Bringing shardul late 2. Removing shardul from attack early 3. No short fine for chahal 4. Selection dillema with management team ( leaving surya Out).
#INDvsSA
#BCCIPolitics
#SuryakumarYadav
All format
Captain — Rohit sharma
Vice captain — Rishabh Pant & Jaspreet Bumrah
@BCCI #INDvsSA @SGanguly99 @JayShah
Stop destroying indian cricket #BCCIPolitics https://t.co/C1O31jThnx
Seems more like it 🤦🏻♀️ #INDvsSA https://t.co/Rf7qIDxnTl
The Downfall of ICT has started. Dark era ahead ✍️
#INDvsSA
From the highs of the Australia and England tours to the lows of this South Africa tour — such a steep decline in the standard of performance of this Indian side. A couple of key players missing but India still had a decent squad to win these ODIs at least. #SAvIND
Hopefully, we can grow by learning from these situations: KL Rahul
Stand-in Indian skipper KL Rahul feels that defeats against South Africa were a good learning experience for the visiting team. Speaking at the post-match presentation after the second ODI, KL Rahul reflected on India's performance and said:
"I think they are playing some really good cricket at home this tour. We are also making some mistakes in the middle. It is a good learning for us. We are a team that takes a lot of pride in winning. Hopefully, we can grow by learning from these situations. We are definitely trying to get better at things we haven't done well in the past."
He added:
"Partnerships in the middle order become crucial when we are entering a big tournament. We also want to get better at bowling in the middle overs and these are the few things that are really obvious and right in front of us. We love challenges. We have come short in the first two games now, so we will look ahead to the third game and try to win that one."
India's tour of South Africa will now conclude with a dead rubber on Sunday. Cape Town will be the venue for the final ODI of the series.