The fist pump from stand-in captain KL Rahul when the coin rolled in favour of India after 21 consecutive ODIs, showed how desperate they were for some toss luck. With dew leaving a huge imprint in the outcome of the previous two fixtures, where India had to bowl under lights, they had the opportunity to field first when conditions were best suited to bowl. And despite being a bowler short — Washington Sundar making way for Tilak Varma — Prasidh Krishna and Kuldeep Yadav wrestled back the early initiative gained by South Africa to dismiss them for 270 in 47.5 overs.
For a major part of their innings, South Africa appeared to take the same road India had taken in the first two ODIs at Ranchi and Raipur. It brought out wonderful match-ups and the gamble that the teams were willing to take in the decider. With Tony de Zorzi and Nander Burger ruled out, South Africa brought Ryan Rickelton at the top to combine with Quinton de Kock. It was the third different opening for Proteas this series as Aiden Markram, centurion in their previous outing, moved to No 5. It was a good gameplan, a shuffle that would allow batsmen with firepower to flex their muscles in search of those extra-runs to make up for dew while Markram was assigned to solidify when sandwiched between Matthew Breetzke and Dewald Brevis. And having got the advantage to bowl first, India showed they were up for the cat and mouse game.
After Arshdeep Singh landed an early punch to get rid of Rickelton, De Kock took centre stage with Temba Bavuma providing support. On a pitch that had bit of moisture, South Africa didn’t get a head start with their first eight overs yielding only 25 runs. The arrival of Prasidh in the ninth over would change it as the next 12 overs went for 79 runs before Ravindra Jadeja broke the 113-run stand by removing Bavuma for 48. With Prasidh being taken apart for 27 runs in his first two overs which included three dismissive sixes, Rahul had no choice but to go for Tilak’s part-time off-breaks. While the first two were decent, Breetzke’s two sixes forced him to bring back Prasidh.
And Prasidh, nicknamed Skiddy, came back as a different bowler. In his second over when De Kock was taking Prasidh apart, Virat Kohli who was fielding at point, exchanged positions moving to mid-off to have a word or two with Prasidh. He appeared to tell the pacer to take a deep breath and at the end of that over, even Rohit Sharma put an arm around his shoulder while walking him to fine-leg. Whatever, it was, Prasidh showed why India see him in the ODI scheme of things. Capable of getting the ball to lift with spongy ball bounce and also skid, he can be hard to get away if he gets his radar right.
He started the second spell giving away just two runs before bowled a game-changing 29th over. He trapped Breetzke with a skidder that thudded the pads and three deliveries later the spongy bounce and two-paced nature of the surface proved to be undoing of Markram, who drove straight to Kohli at point. Off the fourth over of that spell, he rattled De Kock’s stumps when he was beginning to move gears, having made a 89-ball 109. Five down and 17 overs to go, it was time for India to go for the kill.
Once they got hold of one ball from both ends, Rahul summoned Kuldeep, the ideal man to run through the new batsmen. Having bowled with white-ball that resembled a bar of soap in the first two matches, he had the luxury of bowling with a dry ball here to new batsmen. And having gone for 27 in his first five overs, he started his spell with two wrong ‘uns that Brevis and Marco Jansen failed to pick and went for a heave. Rohit, standing at mid-wicket, told him to keep going. In his next over, he sent another wrong ‘un to Brevis, this time wider than the previous two. Brevis had already lined-up for a slog-sweep, went through with it, but could only top-edge it to Rohit. Two deliveries later, with Jansen on strike, he threw his typical bait – the tossed up one around the off-stump channel. Jansen, like Brevis, went for an expansive swing but Kohli was at deep mid-wicket to pouch it safely. Corbin Bosch offered little resistance, undone by Kuldeep’s excellent variation in trajectory that saw him offer a simple caught and bowled chance. Kuldeep kept mixing his variations in search of what would have been a deserving five-fer, but he could only breach the defence of Lungi Ngidi as Prasidh came back to finish what he began as South Africa folded for 270.