The ongoing India-South Africa series has garnered a lot of attention, thanks to the Proteas taking India by surprise to clinch the three-match Test series 2-1, after being 0-1 down. While the Indian team, who played the World Test Championship final against New Zealand last year, were slated to be the favorites, South Africa, did not “choke” this time and handed an embarrassing defeat to the Indians. If this Indian team would have won the Test series, they would have created history as India have never won a Test series in South Africa. The Proteas continue to be the lions at home against India.
The next and the final leg of the India-South Africa series in the three-match ODI series will be played from January 20. While Dean Elgar was the man for the job during the Test series, for the limited-overs format, it is going to be Temba Bavuma, for the 50-over series. Bavuma took over the ODI captainship from Quinton de Kock, who had replaced Faf du Plessis as the skipper of Proteas, early last year.
Bavuma in his chat with Betway says, “It wasn’t something that I was expecting. There was obviously anxiety and fear as to how I was going to take the team forward to new heights. The journey is still young with the white-ball teams, I must say. But I’ve enjoyed it so far.”
Bavuma who took over the reins in March last year became the first black man to captain the Proteas. In his captaincy tenure of 10 months, South Africa under the able aegis of Bavuma beat West Indies in a T20I series 3-2 and then whitewashed Ireland and Sri Lanka 3-0, ahead of the T20 World Cup that was played last year in the UAE.
With respect to his batting and of course the additional responsibility of a captain, Bavuma says, “It can be a challenge to combine the two, but you have to make sure that you’re mentally fresh. The captaincy can clutter your mind. It can be easy to play the game in your head and you don’t want that.”
Playing just his 14th One Day International on 19th January, Temba Bavuma scored a match-winning 110 Runs off 143 Balls. He led from the front after South Africa were 3 down for just 68 runs in the 18th over. At one point, when everything was falling apart for South Africa, Bavuma held the fort at one end and was ably guided by Van der Dussen who went on to score 129 runs in just 96 Balls. This partnership proved crucial for South Africa and helped them beat India by 31 Runs in Boland Park.
Having already won three bilateral series in his brief stint so far, can Temba Bavuma guide the Proteas to an ODI series win against India? Only time will tell.
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