India vs South Africa | Ottis Gibson disappointed with SA batsmen's performance in the series

The fifth ODI of the India-South Africa series was played in Port Elizabeth where the visitors not only won the match by 73 runs but also recorded their first-ever series victory on the South African soil with one match to go. After winning the toss, the Proteas took the field and with the help of Rohit Sharma’s century, Team India scored 274 runs, but in response, seven batsmen failed to touch the double-digit mark and that resulted in yet another loss. The South African coach Gibson lashed out the way the home team players performed in the all-important game.

While chasing the target of 275 runs which can’t be considered as a very big total, Hashim Amla and Markram forged a 52-run partnership. When the hosts were heading towards a stable position, Jasprit Bumrah, who is in the third position in the highest wicket-taker list of the series after five ODIs, gave the much-needed breakthrough to the Indian cricket team. Hardik Pandya, who failed to perform with the bat, sent the hosts on the back foot by dismissing JP Duminy and AB de Villiers very cheaply. After Amla was ran-out, it was just a matter of time for the Indian side to seal the series, but Heinrich Klaasen delayed the inevitable for some more overs.

After playing the first two Tests of the series, Rohit Sharma got a chance to play in the ODI games but he failed to prove his value as in the first four matches and managed to score only 40 runs. But in the penultimate ODI of the series, he got the Man of the Match award for his 115-run knock. The top three position of the highest run-scorer list is grabbed by the Indian batsmen and interestingly, all the three are the top-order batsman as Virat Kohli led the chart with 429 runs after five games, followed by Shikhar Dhawan who scored 305 runs and Rohit with 155. And Gibson said that that made the difference in the series.

“The Indian top order is very experienced and they’ve played well. They’ve seen off the new ball or been able to score freely. We haven’t been able to hold the length very well. I keep saying to the bowlers that in order to control the scoring rate you have to control your length. Otherwise, you can’t stop batsmen from scoring, and we’ve not been able to control length as well as we should be doing at this level and that’s allowed them to score quite freely at times.