Markram (79) and Reeza Hendricks (74) shared 129 runs for the third wicket, but South Africa lost four wickets for 63 runs in the back-end to settle for 278 for 7, a target India chased down with seven wickets in hand, here on Sunday. "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 levelled the three-match series.
Read AlsoIndia vs South Africa 2nd ODI: Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan ensure series-levelling victoryChasing 279 on a track that was a bit on the slower side, but without any demons in it, Ishan Kishan started off patiently and, once set, took the aggressive route, blazing away to 93 off 84 balls with four boundaries and seven sixes.
Shreyas Iyer played the anchor's role to perfection to take India "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 in the tour with unbeaten knocks of 106 and 75 in 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.