India end 11-year-long wait for ODI series victory against South Africa at home, as bowlers deliver in Delhi

A remarkable series came to an end with India coming out on top, thanks to an excellent all-round display where their bowlers got the job done early and the batters managed to knock off the required total comfortably. The visitors struggled to get the scorecard ticking with regular pitfalls while the hosts touched all bases to ensure that a 12-year-long wait to win an ODI series against South Africa at home meets a befitting conclusion.

India won the toss and opted to field first on a surface that had decent movement early in the innings. Much to everyone’s surprise, India started proceedings with a spinner where the new ball had its fair share of movement. This surprising tactic from Dhawan bore instant fruits as Washington Sundar got the big break through of Quinton de Kock.

Ace RCB quick, Mohammed Siraj came back with a banger to get rid of a dangerous Janneman Malan while Reeza Hendricks was next in line to fall to the Hyderabadi quick’s bouncer. Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller did try and put up a decent show but the reprieve was transitory as Washington Sundar produced an absolute ripper to get the better of the Proteas' captain.

Despite Klaasen’s solitary war, the rest of the batting unit failed to pump in something significant and the resistance fizzled out even before the visitors could reach respectable figures. Klaasen was the highest scorer of the South African innings with a well-constructed 34 but eventually fell to Shahbaz Ahmed who conjured another peach to rattle the former’s timbre. Kuldeep Yadav moped up the South African tail pretty fast, finishing with figures of 4 for 18.

Chasing 100 was a cakewalk for the hosts and no fuss was made as Shubman Gill motored comfortably alongside Shikhar Dhawan for a while before the Indian captain fell to a lightning piece of fielding effort from Marco Jansen. However, that had very little consequence on the fabric of the game as Ishan Kishan hung in the middle for a while to allow Shubman to deal the killing blow.

Despite falling just ahead of the finish line, Gill ensured that he had almost won the game and an in-form Shreyas Iyer administered the coup de grace to end a 12-year-long drought in ODIs as India clinched the fray emphatically, to complete their pursuit of vengeance after losing to South Africa earlier in the year. Mohammed Siraj was awarded the Player of the Series for his haul of 5 wickets and exceptionally frugal bowling that tormented the visitors throughout the 3 ODIs.