South Africa Hit The Winning Shot Before Start The Innings!

Let’s talk about what happened in Raipur yesterday, which was mind-blowing, seriously. Get one thing straight, winning the toss in ODI Cricket is not a coin flip anymore, it is securing half the victory, swear to God! India had built a mountain of 358 on the scoreboard; it felt like a total formality, but those South African boys played absolutely brilliantly! On top of that, the dampness from the dew and our consecutive 20th toss defeat. This loss, omg, it feels like stomach acid. The series is tied 1-1, and we definitely learned a lesson. #INDvsSA

KL Rahul’s Confession, “Man, I Am Kicking Myself”

The captain of the Indian Team looked visibly disappointed after the match. When asked if the huge loss was hard to swallow, he immediately pointed the finger at Dew.
He said, “ No man, not hard… just look at everything, right, how much dew was on the field, and what a massive headache it is to bowl in the second innings. We did very well in the last game, enduring everything. You see how difficult it is for bowlers with a wet ball, and the umpires did change the ball, but still, the toss factor is huge, boss. Seriously, it’s making a massive difference.” #KLRahul

For the second time, India had to bat first. We somehow won the Ranchi game by 17 runs after making 349, but this time, even 358 fell short. Weird, right?
KL said with frustration, ”The batting score of 350 looks good, I know, but even last time this was the talk, where do we find those extra 20-25 runs so that our bowlers feel confident when bowling with the wet ball?”

On future improvements, he also commented that the bowlers have put in all their effort, straight talk, but yes, there was some slackness in the fielding, some easy boundaries went through. If we can tighten up these three things: batting, bowling, and fielding a bit more, then maybe those 20-25 runs will fall into our bucket, and we will definitely win.

What a Fantastic Batting by Rutu and Virat!

Virat and Ruturaj led the foundation of the huge score of 358. Really, they were on Fire together, Virat hit a continuous ODI century for the 11th time, and it was Rutu’s first ever century.
KL Rahul couldn't stop praising them: "Watching Virat was beautiful as always—we are used to it, we’ve seen it 53 times. He just keeps doing his job. But Rutu's batting was truly fantastic. He thrashed the spinners, found the gaps. The speed he picked up after his 50, I think that's what handed us those extra 20 runs."

Slow Like A Turtle in Death Overs!

After a great start, India could only score 103 runs in the last 15 overs and only 74 in the last 10 overs. With the good score of Rahul 66* off 43 balls, we could not reach the score we wanted because the slow pace of Washington Sundar (1 off 8) and Jadeja (24* off 27) was debated.
Rahul gave his take: "The roles at 5-6-7 are critical. If we could have scored 10-15 more runs in the last 10 overs, the bowlers would have had more support." #TeamIndia