What happened when India faced South Africa in the 2019 World Cup match?

With India primed to take on one of their biggest oppositions in the ongoing World Cup, it is going to be a historic battle between the two top teams of the tournament as Eden Gardens prepares to host the India-South Africa clash. In a lip-smacking encounter, the Men in Blue will be keen to keep their winning-run alive while the Proteas would be hopeful of clinching the top spot in the points table to confirm their qualification for the semis.

However, before we dive into the madness, a glance at history would probably tell us how these two teams have fared in the past. Despite India’s recent dominion, the overall head-to-head sees South Africa holding a very slender lead over the Men in Blue. Out of the five matches played, India have won the last two of them while the Rainbow Nation has bagged victories in the first three encounters. With that being said, here’s a look at what happened when these two teams met the last time in an ODI World Cup clash back in 2019.

It all unravelled in Southampton where South Africa won the toss and opted to bat first. Despite a couple of early blows from Jasprit Bumrah that sent Hashim Amla and Quinton de Kock packing, Faf du Plessis came together with Rassie van der Dussen to steady the ship.

Despite those cameos coming in, South Africa never really looked like they could pull off something momentous as India kept on chipping away at the wickets. Chris Morris was the top scorer for South Africa with 42 from just 34 balls while Faf scored a hard-fought 38.

Yuzvendra Chahal clinched four wickets to restrict South Africa to a paltry 227/9 while the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav collectively shared fived wickets between them to hand over the edge to India.

The Men in Blue had a couple of early stutters too in the form of Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli falling cheaply, but it was Rohit Sharma who never really seemed fazed and he was going after the South African bowling attack with his claws and fangs bared.

With cameos coming in from KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya and MS Dhoni, Rohit ensured that he provided the charge almost single-handedly at the other end. Despite scoring at an uncharacteristically slow rate where he got 122 from 144 balls that saw him clubbing 13 fours and two sixes, he ensured that India got across the line without breaking a sweat.