Opinion: Win in South Africa puts India in good place for 2019 Cricket World Cup

Team India continued their dominance over host South Africa after beating them in the fifth ODI in Port Elizabeth. With this winning game, India also won the series 4-1 with one game to spare. A hundred from Rohit Sharma and a superb performance with the ball by spinners, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, along with all-rounder Hardik Pandya, ensured a thumping 73-run victory for this confident Indian side.

This was a historic moment in Indian cricket as this was their first bilateral series win in South Africa in any format. Curiously, the Indian team hasn’t even been at their best in this series. They have had some middle-order batting woes and their finishing in the last ten overs has raised serious concerns. Despite that, they have confidently thumped South Africa in their own backyard.

For South Africa, this is a humiliating series defeat in front of their home crowd. While they have bowled with decent discipline, their batting has been shambolic. 30 out of the 43 South African wickets in the games so far have been snared by the Indian spinners. It speaks volumes about South Africa’s continued vulnerability against wrist-spinners and one wonders how the current No. 1 ODI team in the world is going to sort this problem out going ahead.

Another worrying aspect of South Africa’s performance in this series has been their over-reliance on their old stalwarts – AB De Villiers, Faf Du Plessis and Hashim Amla. While Du Plessis has been ruled out of the series after the first game, De Villiers and Amla have been struggling with lack of form. Unfortunately, the other batsmen have not been able to put their hands up and take accountability of the batting order and have crumbled under pressure regularly. Their technique against spin has been poor and they have not been patient enough to construct an ODI innings.

The likes of JP Duminy and David Miller were the other experienced batsmen in the squad and should have led from the front when the others were failing. Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened. The South African batsmen certainly need to be more responsible if they wish to have any hopes of clinching the 2019 ODI World Cup.

The Proteas’ bowling lacks variety as well and they are in urgent need of an incisive spinner, a wicket-taking third seam bowler along with a decent bowling all-rounder. Because Tabraiz Shamsi, Imran Tahir, Andile Phehlukwayo and Lungi Ngidi have just not been impressive enough. South Africa have always prided themselves on being the giants of limited overs cricket. Their performance in this series reflects poorly on their rich history and dominance at home. Perhaps they did not take this Indian side as seriously as they should have and paid for it dearly.

India would be thrilled with this performance. Despite the loss in the last match, they did not let their intensity waver and came back strongly to achieve a series-clinching win in the fifth ODI. It shows how confident and fearless Virat Kohli and his men are and why they deserve to be at the top.

Although India hasn’t batted to its complete potential - their lower middle-order especially needs to be more pro-active - they have still been extremely good as a unit. Their success has come primarily from the clinical performance of their top-order and their spinners. Never before have two Indian spinners dominated South Africa in their own den so convincingly. It’s beautiful and thrilling to watch and holds India in good stead for their 2019 World Cup mission.

It remains to be seen if South Africa can save some face in the final ODI on Friday. But for now, it is Team India that is flying high and deservedly so.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)