TIL Desk Sports/ Rohit Sharma’s century helped India wrap up the One-Day International series against hosts South Africa with a 73-run victory at St George’s Park in Port Elizabeth. India took an unassailable 4-1 lead in the six-match series as Sharma finally came good with the bat, scoring 115 after India were asked to bat first and amassed 274 for seven wickets in their 50 overs.
South Africa, who needed victory to keep alive their hopes of levelling the series, were all out for 201 in response. No Indian men’s side since its first tour in South Africa back in 1992, has ever won a series across any format. They did win a one-off T20 match in 2006 — their first ever shortest format but it was a single match event.
The team under Kohli achieved what neither among Mohammed Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid or Mahendra Singh Dhoni could ever accomplish — win a full fledged series in the Rainbow Nation.
“Only one team had the pressure of losing this series and we knew that. It’s history and the guys have worked hard for it. Every since the third Test in Johannesburg it’s been a good time for us. It’s been a collective effort to create history,” an ecstatic Kohli said after the match.
