Centurion, January 25: Yusuf Pathan and Virat Kohli turned out to be the star for India in the batting department while off-spinner Harbhajan Singh was the most economical bowler for the visitors in the five-match ODI series against South Africa which they lost 2-3.
In the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, young Kohli and Pathan put up impressive performances with the bat in hostile South African conditions even as the likes of skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina found the going tough.
Kohli emerged as the highest run-scorer for India with 193 runs in the series at an an average of 48.25
He scored two fluent half centuries with an unbeaten 87 in the fourth ODI being his highest score.
Pathan, on the hand, made full use of his long handle in the three matches that he played, accumulating 166 runs to finish as the second highest run-getter for India.
Pathan’s 70-ball 105-run knock in the fifth ODI here last night, was also India’s lone century in the series.
Apart from that he also scored a fifty and has got the best average (55.33) and best strike rate (134.95) among Indians in the series.
Pathiv Patel, who came in as replacement for an injured Tendulkar for the last two ODIs, holds the third best batting average (24.50)
With 111 runs from five innings, Raina is the third highest scorer for India but the left-hander is behind Pathiv in the average list (22.20) as he failed to convert his starts to big scores.
Yuvraj (18.20) and Dhoni (15.00) had a forgettable series as they scored a total of 91 and 75 runs respectively in their five innings.
–PTI–