After his team’s seven-wicket defeat at the hands of India in the second ODI in Ranchi, South Africa batter Aiden Markram praised the hosts bowlers, saying they didn’t give any freebies.
Opting to bat first, the Proteas posted 278/7 in their 50 overs on the back of Aiden Markram’s 89-ball 79 and Reeza Hendricks’ 76-ball 74. Pacer Mohammed Siraj was the stand-out bowler for India, claiming three wickets by conceding 38 runs in his 10 overs.
''They (India) bowled well, they did not give us any freebies. Whenever a team goes bang-bang, the fielding team all of a sudden gets that momentum in their corner. Myself getting out at that time of the innings was, maybe, where we left that 15-20 runs short,'' Markram said after India levelled the three-match series.
"I would have liked to take it 10 overs deeper and be there in the last five overs and try and cash in, maybe that's where we fell short."
David Miller, who has been in terrific form in the ongoing India tour, also found batting tough in the second ODI.
"You have got David Miller in the form of his life and if he's struggling to hit it out of the park it tells you something about two things -- they bowled really well and the conditions were really tough," Markram said.
Reflecting on his partnership with Hendricks, Markram said: "The partnership was doing well and it's nice to have spent time in the middle. A lot of credit goes to Rezza for being able to keep the runs flowing from the other end. The wicket was slightly drier but we managed to put up a decent score."
In reply, the Men in Blue rode on Shreyas Iyer’s unbeaten century (113 off 111 balls) and Ishan Kishan’s 84-ball 93 to overhaul the target with 4.1 overs to spare.
"Ishan (Kishan) and Shreyas (Iyer) played excellent knocks. A lot of credit goes to them for having such a big partnership, and pretty much killing the game and getting their team over the line," Markram said.
He also defended South Africa’s stand-in skipper Keshav Maharaj’s decision to bat first even though dew played a part in the second half.
"The ball was quite wet and we definitely saw the impact of dew. Maybe in hindsight, we can say we got it (toss) wrong.
"But from the initial look, it looked really dry so that's the reason we were batting first. I don't think we bowled badly at all. They hit some good balls to boundaries and it makes things quite tough to slow down," Markram said.
(With PTI inputs)
