India pay 'dew' respect in Raipur ODI as South Africa complete record chase

IND vs SA, 2nd ODI: South Africa went on to chase 359, which happens to be the joint-highest against India.

When you score in excess of 350 in ODIs, it is not very often that you still end up losing. The probability of that is quite minimal, with the feat being achieved only 13 times, before the IND vs SA 2nd ODI, in Raipur on Wednesday. But this current bunch of the Indian team, is pulling off some unprecedented feats.

Highest Chase Against India

First, they only bettered their record of losing most tosses in a row — which now stands at 20, and then went on to hand SA a win, while defending a mammoth 359. This score happens to be the joint highest chase against the Indian team ever — tied with what Australia had achieved in Mohali back in 2019, after scoring 358.

What was even more baffling is the fact, that two of their batters/players — Tony de Zorzi and Nandre Burger were injured and could not complete their batting, which in turn could have added more pressure on the Proteas. But then, 0-1 down in the series, the visitors did not offer any excuses, and went on to complete the win.

Prasidh Krishna, Kuldeep Yadav Poor

There was a stage when SA were 317/5 and 322/6, but the Indian bowlers just could not close the match. Yes, there was an issue with the dew at Raipur and the ball was changed at least four times, under the lights, but then the poor effort by the host bowlers must be highlighted.

Harshit Rana was good in patches, but could only return with figures of 1/70 eventually. Prasidh Krishna was far from being decent, getting 2/82 in 8.2 overs, and Kuldeep Yadav was bad too, at 1/78. The best among the lot was Arshdeep Singh, who got 2/54, which too wasn’t good enough. Aiden Markram (110), Matthew Breetzke (68) and Dewald Brevis (54) were particularly good in exploiting the ‘dew’ conditions.

Nonetheless, the efforts of Virat Kohli and Ruturaj Gaikwad went in vain; the duo scored 53rd and 1st ton, respectively. But the bowlers could not take the team to the finish line.