Cape Town: Terming their 3-0 win over India in the three-match ODI series as very satisfying and mission accomplished for the Proteas as a team, South Africa captain Temba Bavuma said that not many people gave them much of a chance at the start of the series.
South Africa beat India by four runs in the last match to win the series 3-0 at Cape Town on Sunday.
"Things were a bit crazy at the end. The complacency got to us when we thought we had the game in the bag but we managed to bring things back. A little bit crazy. Very satisfying, it's mission accomplished for us as a team. Not many people gave us much of a chance. I hope we've shown with our performances we've got some more supporters, even with you guys in the commentary box," said Bavuma.
In all praise for Quinton de Kock, who was Player of the Match for his astonishing century (124 off 130 balls), Bavuma said, "Quinton's been great, he's shows what a valuable asset he is. Rassie has also been tremendous. The batters as a whole were quite good. The bowling as well, not individually today but yes as a group. This was a big challenge and obstacle in our journey, winning the two series will do good for our confidence. The Test series was the hardest series I was a part of. The Indian bowlers kept asking the hard questions. Even the fielding intensity was high. In one-dayers too it wasn't easy, very challenging. Even in these conditions, which were more subcontinent-like, it's another feather in our cap. Very pleasing to contribute to the team, even better when the team wins. I'm enjoying my batting at the moment."
Meanwhile, India skipper KL Rahul said, "Deepak gave us a real chance. Quite an exciting game, disappointing that we ended up on the losing side. It's quite obvious where we've gone wrong and it's for everyone to see. Our shot selection has been really poor as batsmen. Even as bowlers we weren't hitting the good areas consistently.
"We didn't put pressure on the opposition for long periods, so we ended up losing the series. We need to recognise now how we can get better. What has always stood out for us is the energy and the passion and the skill and understanding of the game. These kind of mistakes will keep happening, but it's important we learn and don't keep repeating the mistakes. In the ODIs we repeated some of the mistakes. We need to look at ourselves in the mirror and have some hard conversations. We've had a great time in South Africa. We were looked after really well, thanks to CSA. We had an exciting series, we showed a lot of fight, in patches. We'll go back with learnings and memories, and get better for sure," he added.