Nice, easy win for India!

It was a seriesdeciding match that had promised much but fizzled out into a virtual nocontest Who would have thought that the South Africans would manage just 99 their lowest ODI score against India on a Ferozshah Kotla pitch that was supposed to be full of runs And although India lost three wickets on the way getting to the meagre target did not take much effort With the convincing sevenwicket win India bagged the ODI series 21 coming back strongly after losing the first game in Lucknow In the end even the secondstring Indian team proved too much for South Africa as it brought to the fore their tendency to be inconsistent They play like champions one day and like novices on the other Also ReadIndia beat South Africa by seven wickets in 2nd ODISetback for SAIt was the novice side that was on display as none of their batsmen could bat long enough to help the teamrsquos cause Only three batsmen managed to get into doubledigit scores Heinrich Klaasen 34 Janneman Malan 15 and Marco Jansen 14 and thatrsquos the reason things went wrong for themKuldeep Yadav celebrates a SA wicketIt was a huge setback for South Africa They were required to win the ODI series to give their chances of a direct entry into the next yearrsquos World Cup a boost But that did not happen The other immediate setback will be to their morale as they fly off to Australia on Thursday for the T20 World Cup having lost both the T20I and ODI series in India There can be no denying that it was a superlative performance by the Indian bowlers who kept up the pressure on the South African batsmen and picked up wickets regularlyIt was Washington Sundar and Mohammed Siraj who made early inroads Then Shahbaz Ahmed made double dents in the middle and Kuldeep Yadav finally cleaned up the innings Yadav picked up four wickets and although they were all tailenders it will give a big boost to his career after being hampered by injuries in the recent pastSiraj Shubman impressiveEqually impressive was Siraj who bowled with a lot of verve and picked a brace of wickets This performance could well have made him one of the top contenders to replace Jasprit Bumrah in the World Cup squad And with an impressive Sundar too grabbing two wickets at the top thatrsquos when South Africarsquos problems started from where they could never recover The chase was led by Shubman Gill who was unlucky to miss a halfcentury He batted with confidence and authority to ensure India did not have major hiccups during the chaseAlso impressive was Shreyas Iyer who finished off things with a superb six to remain unbeaten on 28 Overall it was a memorable series for the secondstring Indian team and a disappointing one for the South AfricansAlso ReadKuldeep Yadav shines with fourwicket haul as India trump South Africa in third ODI clinch series 21Brief scoresSouth Africa 99 all out in 271 overs H Klaasen 34 K Yadav 418 W Sundar 215 M Siraj 217 lost to India 1053 in 191 overs S Gill 49 B Fortuin 120 by seven wickets