ICC Champions Trophy - 5 reasons why South Africa lost to India

4. Lack of a credible spinning option:

The astute tactician that MS Dhoni is in the middle overs, is because of his ability to control the scoring rate and exert pressure with the help of his spinning options. With AB de Villiers and Peterson making merry in the middle, MS Dhoni applied the brakes with the help of Ashwin, Jadeja and part-timer Suresh Raina. Unfortunately, there was no such diversity in the South African attack as they failed to apply pressure in the middle overs till the power play overs. This has been a long-standing issue with South African bowling and it seems like it will hurt them going forward in the tournament.