By Admin 
IND vs SA 2nd ODI: In the second ODI played in Raipur, Team India suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of South Africa. Even after giving a big target of 359 runs, India could not save the match. Proteas won the match by scoring 362 runs for 6 wickets with 4 balls remaining. The three-match series is now tied at 1-1. The last ODI to be held in Visakhapatnam on 6th December has now become the real ‘final’ of the series. After the match, the pain of Indian captain KL Rahul was clearly visible. He admitted that the team missed in many important places, especially in bowling and fielding.
dew becomes the biggest enemy
Rahul said in clear words that bowling in the second innings was becoming very difficult because dew was falling continuously. Due to this, the bowlers faced difficulty in catching the ball and their grip became weak. Rahul said, “It is very difficult to digest the defeat. It was not at all easy to bowl in so much dew. The umpire also helped in changing the ball. It was very important for us to win the toss and I am blaming myself for losing the toss.”
He told that the team scored more than 350, which was good considering the performance of the batsmen, but the bowlers could not take advantage of the same.
Fielding and lower order spoiled the match
Rahul admitted that on some occasions the team could have done better in fielding. Yashasvi Jaiswal dropped the catch of Aiden Markram, which cost India dearly. Because Markram later scored a brilliant century and changed the course of the match.
The captain also admitted that his batsmen tried to score 20-25 more runs in the end, but the contribution from the lower order was not as expected. He said that if the lower order had added a little more runs, the result of the match could have been different.
Praise for Kohli and Gaikwad
However, Rahul praised Virat Kohli and Ruturaj Gaikwad a lot. Both of them scored brilliant centuries and took India to a huge score of 358. Rahul said, “It was great to see both of them bat like this. Virat was perfect as always. The way Rituraj played spin, he got us 20 more runs.”
Series decided in Visakhapatnam
Now both India and South Africa have their eyes on the final ODI. The team that wins this match will win the series. The biggest challenge before Team India will be to improve the fielding and bowling strategy.