It was one of the toughest days to bat on Newlands’ surface under a scorching hot sun for any team. South Africa decided to let India bat on this sluggish surface first and chase the target down once the wicket got to settle.
Rohit Sharma’s misery in South Africa seems endless and he registered his 12th ODI duck. Virat Kohli came out to be the second fiddle for Shikhar Dhawan, who scored back-to-back half-centuries in this series. When Dhawan (76) was looking set for a hundred, he threw his wicket away but both batsmen shared a 140-run stand for the second wicket.
Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav – all failed to bat on such a different batting track. Meanwhile, Kohli notched up his 34th One-Day International century – one of his best – and stitched India’s innings together.
Also Read: Watch - DRS came to rescue Kohli successfullyTeam India finished their innings at 303/6 where Kohli remained unbeaten at 160. This was the impact of his batting that India managed this total on the board, where every other batsman failed to bat on. Apart from Dhawan and Kohli, neither of batsmen crossed 20-run mark.
South Africa has to chase this record total down if they want to stay alive in this series. No team has chased a total in access of 258.
