Shortened game worked in South Africa’s favour: Kohli

TIL Desk Sports/ India captain Virat Kohli has rued his team’s misfortune but admitted that South Africa were the deserving winners during their five-wicket win in the fourth ODI in Johannesburg.

With their tail up in the series following a 3-0 lead, India went into Saturday’s game as favourites but twin weather breaks coupled with a few missed chances brought a halt to their rampaging ODI run as South Africa kept the series alive.

“In hindsight, you have to give credit to South Africa. I think they played with a lot of character in the end, they pulled through. They deserved to win,” Kohli said after Saturday’s weather-hit and curtailed ODI.

“They are a quality side, we expected them to play quality cricket and they played well. We know we’ll have to be at the top of our game to get another win under our belt and we’ll work extremely hard for that,” he added.

Opting to bat, Shikhar Dhawan and Kohli were going great guns before lightning first stopped play when the visitors were placed at 200 for 2. Although no overs were cut, India lost the momentum and only finished at 289 for 7.

Another rain break, later during South Africa’s innings, forced the match to be reduced to 28 overs with the hosts set a revised target of 202. Kohli also noted how conditions had worked against his team as India scored just 89 in 16.3 overs after the first break of play.