India thrashed the South African team in the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 pretty badly in Kolkata yesterday as they defeated one of the most dominating teams in the tournament by 243 runs. While this is the biggest defeat South Africa has seen in the World Cup 2023, India also handed South Africa their biggest defeat (by runs) in ODI cricket history.
Yesterday’s match was one of the highly anticipated matches in the tournament as South Africa and India were the only two teams that had shown great dominance so far. While India had remained unbeaten, South Africa had lost just to the Netherlands. However, South Africa, who were expected to give India a tough competition and were the favorites, collapsed when faced with India’s bowling attack.
South Africa won most of its matches by huge margins. They also have put up some of the biggest targets for the opposition teams. So, it was really surprising when Indian bowlers wrapped up their entire batting order at 83.
What did Mohammed Shami say?
Post the match, India’s star bowler Mohammed Shami, in a discussion with former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif, took a dig at the South African team.
Celebrating India’s success, Kaif asked Shami that now the team had defeated some of the biggest names, including New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, where shall a new opponent be sourced from for Team India. Responding to Kaif, Shami savagely said, “Look at the condition of those who were scoring above 400 runs every time.”
It must be noted that before facing India, South Africa’s performance had been phenomenal, even though they had been defeated by the Netherlands, who are one of the underdogs of the tournament.
In their previous match, India defeated Sri Lanka by 302 runs. Post the defeat, Sri Lanka’s
sports minister Roshan Ranasinghe sacked the national cricket board on Monday.
In the match against South Africa, Ravindra Jadeja picked up 5 wickets, becoming the second Indian spinner to take a five-wicket haul in the ODI World Cup history. Virat Kohli also set the stage on fire with his 49th ODI century, equalling Sachin Tendulkar’s record in just 277 innings.