South Africa batter Aiden Markram opened up on the seven-wicket defeat at the hands of India in the Ranchi ODI, saying the Indian bowlers bowled well and did not give them any freebies on a touch track.
Electing to bat first, South Africa rode on fine knocks by Reeza Hendricks (74) and Markram (79) to post 278 for 7 in the first innings. Chasing 279 for victory, India secured a series-leveling seven-wicket victory after Shreyas Iyer smashed an unbeaten 113 and forged a 161-run stand with Ishan Kishan in the second ODI.
”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 leveled 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 imperious form on the tour with unbeaten knocks of 106 and 75 in the Guwahati T20I and Lucknow ODI respectively, too found the going tough in the death overs.
”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.
