‘Never backed down from any situation’

India never backed down in adverse situations and played an aggressive brand of cricket to emerge as deserving winners in the limited over series, said stand-in captain Rohit Sharma.

“We will take these limited-overs trophies, throughout the series we played with a lot of aggression. As a group, we never back down from any situation. That is the reason we are standing here as winners,” Sharma said after India beat South Africa by seven runs to clinch the series 2-1 yesterday.

Sharma also lauded his bowlers for a clinical performance.

“We discussed certain plans and it worked today. The idea was to keep the ball on the stumps and we kept it tight in the first six overs. Credit to the new-ball bowlers. It was a complete bowling performance,” he said.

“To be honest, we were 15 runs short. Because the way the first half went, I thought we lost our way in the end. These things happen and we learn from it. I thought it was a decent score and the bowlers did the job for us. I hope games like these teach us a lot of things.”

JP Duminy, South Africa’s stand-in captain credited India for dominating the powerplays with both bat and ball.

“They bowled pretty well in the Powerplay, and we just couldn’t get the boundaries. The difference from their batting Powerplay and ours was 30 runs. I definitely thought 170 was chaseable,” he said.

“The slower balls and the knuckle balls from them worked. I am proud of the way the guys fought, especially Jonker. It is amazing to see a lot of talent coming through. All credit to India, outstanding white-ball tour for them.”

Raina, who was adjudged the Man of the Match for scoring 43 off 27 balls and taking one wicket for 27 in three overs, credited skipper Virat Kohli and coach Ravi Shastri for showing confidence in him.

“Especially in the first overs, you need to show intent. Thanks to Virat and Ravi bhai, they gave me the licence. The way we played, the dressing room atmosphere is so calm.

“The last we have done in two-and-a-half months, no team has done it in a long time. Two lefties at the crease, I got a ball, and working on it.”

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was awarded the Man of the Series, said IPL helped him to hone his skills in the shorter format.