Proteas eye points and series prize in decisive third ODI in Delhi

Proteas middle-order batsman Aiden Markram said the team would continue to fight to the death heading into the series-deciding third ODI against India in Delhi on Tuesday.

Markram, the top-scoring Proteas batsman in the last match, said the squad were focused on what needed to be done from a Cricket World Cup Super League points qualification point of view.

Markram smashed 79 runs off 89 balls in Sunday’s second ODI alongside the returning Reeza Hendricks, who hit 74 off 76, as they shared in a 129-run third-wicket partnership to help SA to 278/7 in their 50 overs.

In reply, Shreyas Iyer (113 off 111) and Ishan Kishan (93 off 84) helped steer India to a comfortable seven-wicket victory to level the series.

SA remain in 11th place on the Super League points table, but a win on Tuesday will take them up to ninth, ahead of Sri Lanka and Ireland, and only nine points adrift of West Indies in eighth place — the cut-off for direct entry into the 2023 ODI World Cup.

“The two formats are slightly different, but we are looking at everything we can take from it — it is an important series for us because of the points for World Cup qualification.

“So we are giving it our all and we will look to take all the positives from the ODI series into the World Cup,” Markram said.

He felt SA were 15 to 20 runs short of what they believed would have been a winning score in the second ODI.

“It is quite difficult to say. Batting first the ball was not skidding on as much because there was no dew, and they bowled into the pitch and the ball was dying in the wicket, so it becomes difficult to bat.

“You have David Miller, who is in the form of his life, and if he is struggling to hit the ball out of the park, it tells you two things — they bowled really well and conditions were tough.”

On getting some runs under his belt, and also sharing in the partnership with Hendricks, Markram said: “I found it quite frustrating at times, so a lot of credit has to go to Reeza who kept the runs flowing at the other end so the partnership was still doing well.

“I would have liked to take my innings maybe 10 overs deeper and be there for the last five overs to try to cash in, so that is where that 15 to 20 runs we left out might have been on me. But you take an innings like that, I still found it quite tough and we must give a lot of credit to the Indian bowlers for that.

“Credit still has to go to the way they played. I don’t think we played badly at all, they were hitting some really good balls for boundaries and everyone knows how it goes when your good balls are going for boundaries — it makes things tough to turn around.”

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