India slipped to their first-ever ODI series whitewash in South Africa after the hosts sealed a thrilling win in the final ODI of the three-match series at Newlands, Cape Town on Sunday. A 4-run win in the third and final ODI at Newlands, which came after two resounding victories in the opening two clashes, saw hosts South Africa complete a historic 3-0 clean sweep over India in the 50-over format.
KL Rahul became only the 4th India captain after Kapil Dev, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli to be on the receiving end of a whitewash in an ODI series that had 3 or more matches. Deepak Chahar, who also took two wickets with his pace bowling to bowl out South Africa for 287, was involved in a 55-run eighth-wicket stand but it went in vain.
Earlier in the day, India got off to a poor start as they lost captain KL Rahul early as Lungi Ngidi struck for the hosts in the fifth over. Veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan then hit his 35th ODI fifty and joined hands with ex-captain Virat Kohli as the duo added 98 runs for the second wicket to steady India in the chase.
Andile Phehlukwayo then struck twice in the 23rd over to dismiss Dhawan for 61 and Rishabh Pant for a duck. Kohli then played a nice hand and hit his 64th ODI fifty but fell 35 runs short of his 71st international hundred when Keshav Maharaj outfoxed the star batter in his last over. After Kohli departed, India lost Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav after both batters got good starts.
Earlier, India bowled South Africa out for 287 after opener Quinton de Kock hit his 17th ODI hundred and Rassie van der Dussen scored another top-class 50 in the final match of the series.
India went down by seven wickets in the second ODI while in the first outings South Africa won 31 runs.
