The series will be decided in VisakhapatnamImage Credit source: PTI
After losing the Test series at home to South Africa after almost 25 years, the Indian team now faces a new challenge. The third and last match of the ODI series will be played on Saturday 6 December. After the victory of India in the first match and South Africa in the second match, the series is tied at 1-1. Now the series will be decided in Visakhapatnam, where the winning team will capture the trophy. In such a situation, the challenge is equal for both the teams but Team India faces the challenge of saving its honor because it is in danger of repeating its 39 years old history.
Let us tell you further about what is this history and why it is a big challenge. First let’s take a look at the journey of the series so far. So far, both the matches in this series have been high-scoring and the score has been more than 330 runs in each innings. In the first ODI played in Ranchi, India had scored 349 runs and won the match by 17 runs by bowling out South Africa for 332 runs. But despite scoring 358 runs in the second match played in Raipur, the Indian team could not defend this score and South Africa won the match by 4 wickets.
With the win in the second match, South Africa leveled the series at 1-1 and now the time for decision has come. After facing the embarrassment of losing 0-2 in the Test series, Team India would like to make some compensation by winning the ODI series. But the bigger challenge is how to save the successful streak that has been going on for 39 years. In fact, in the last 39 years, Team India has not lost a Test and ODI series against the same team at home. The last time the Pakistani team toured India was in 1986-87 and won the Test series by 1-0 and the ODI series by 5-1.
South Africa has defeated India in the test, now it has a chance to repeat the historic feat of Pakistan. Team India has the last chance to save its honour. This is also going to be challenging for Team India because dew has had a lot of impact in this series so far and it is becoming very difficult to defend the score in the second innings. Team India has lost the toss in the last 20 consecutive ODI matches and it is difficult to say whether it will win this time too. In such a situation, Rahul and company will have to put in all their efforts.