It was a total team performance, says Dhoni
Indian captain MS Dhoni was very pleased following India's performance in the fourth ODI at Chennai. He believed that both the batsmen and the bowlers fulfilled their responsibilities thus helping India to beat South Africa by a 35-run margin.
Dhoni was speaking to the press after the fourth ODI finished, ESPNcricinfo reports. Virat Kohli was the standout performer for India as he scored a brilliant century to help India post a competitive total of 299 on a spinning Chepauk pitch.
"Virat is somebody, right from the very start - and not today, I'm talking about the ODIs when he started - he was always someone who was very keen on improving his game. And even when he would get out scoring a 60 or a 70, he wanted to convert it into a hundred.
"Just watching how he plays his 50 to 60 and 100 to 110 - because a lot of times these are the brackets where you see a lot of batsmen getting out - so once he crosses that, with the kind of mindset he has he will always play a big innings."
The Indian captain hailed the impact of both the batsmen (Raina and Kohli) and the bowlers as India restricted South Africa from chasing down the target. AB de Villiers’ inspired century was not sufficient to give South Africa an early series victory.
“As a total team we did well, bowled well and batted well. They (batsmen) need to give themselves a bit more time and that was the reason to promote (Suresh) Raina and after he gets going he can play the big shots,” Dhoni observed.
“Everyone has scored runs in the series now so that's good going into the last match. Virat batted exceedingly well and assessed the conditions well,” he continued.
Virat Kohli moved into the second spot behind Sachin Tendulkar in the list of Indian players with the highest number of ODI centuries. Kohli's score of 138 was his third highest ODI score and his 23rd century in the 50-over format.
In response, De Villiers was the lone warrior for the Proteas as other batsmen could not handle the spinners. The South African captain braved the pitch and the conditions and went on to score his 22nd century in ODIs. He is now on top of ODI centuries list for South Africa.
India played three spinners and all of them bowled well picking up wickets at the right intervals to keep piling pressure on South Africa. Harbhajan Singh picked up two wickets while Axar Patel and Amit Mishra picked one each.
Dhoni praised his bowlers’ efforts as he rotated them well to complete the fifty overs without having to use a part-time bowler. Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up three wickets for India, which included the crucial wicket of De Villiers. The other seamer, Mohit Sharma, picked up one wicket.
“It was important that bowlers took the responsibility, so I shuffled them up and the three spinners were good. The fast bowlers also have to do their job and finish their quota of 10, or at least nine overs so I decided not to use a part-time bowler,” Dhoni explained.