It was a complete performance with bat and ball. It will be unfair to say the spinners didnt’ bowl well. I can only be thankful and blessed with the opportunities I’ve had in my life and to experience these kinds of things …
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Weve got our gameplans for each individual. Partnerships were important and the only way to chase down that much would have been by batting 50 overs.
He was more forthcoming about the rule changes made by the global Cricket Council in ODIs and their effects over the last few years. It was a clever mixture of aggression and skilful bowling. He controlled the innings exceptionally very well. Those are our strengths we focus on rather than seeing India’s weakness. “We are looking for the solution and I hope we will come up with a solution soon”. We have a great team culture… Friendly nature of these cricketers off-the-field is a major reason why they are cheered wherever they play in India. We always wanted to keep the wickets intact till the end and accelerate the run rate. We have tried Stuart Binny, people have criticised that also but if you talk of all-rounders here, he is the best seaming all-rounder, your two best spinning all-rounders are Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. We’re very proud of that. When he senses a weakness and an opportunity to pick wickets, he comes with double the aggression. We got the timing spot on. He became the first batsman ever to smash 10 or more sixes twice in his ODI career.
India were all out for 224 in the 36th over, their second heaviest ODI defeat in terms of runs.
De Villiers, the owner of the record for the fastest hundred in the format, needed no invitation to launch into the Indian bowlers with the stage set perfectly for his pyrotechnics.
“Even now‚ I don’t know what I did‚” De Kock said in a television interview during the innings break. Time has come to shed the tentative approach and look for a younger player in the domestic circuit who can occupy that number five slot. The fielders had got away with a poor show in earlier two games which the side had won, but that proved fatal in the decider. He was possibly the best seamer in a couple of games. But injuries are part of the game. (Otherwise) may be you will win a series here and there.
“Test is completely different, the challenge is completely different”. It is better than all other teams in the world.
“He should be patient to recover before the Test series”, said Gavaskar. Since January 2013, they have lost 16 and won 11 of the 27 matches chasing, giving them W/L ratio of 0.687. He is incredible. I think the secret of his success is his positioning. Our fast bowlers, yes they can swing the ball, but when it is flat they are not ones who can push the opposing batsmen on the back foot and even when they are fast they don’t have the bounce as they don’t hit the deck hard.
“I still remember I was watching a little bit and Shaun Pollock kept saying he has not shifted to sixth and seventh gear”. My main aim at that time was to maintain a balance and hold myself back as long as (Faf) du Plessis was there. Our pacers went for runs and our spinners went for runs. I’m a big fan.
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This is the 17th 400-plus innings in the one-day history.
