'I can't accept this...it's nonsense': Pollock, Gavaskar lambast South Africa's horror batting show vs IND

South Africa were folded for just 116 runs in 27.3 overs in its eight-wicket loss to India in the opening ODI game of the series.

To say South Africa were hammered would be an understatement of what unfolded in Johannesburg on Sunday evening in the opening ODI game of the three-match series. South Africa had more of their white-ball regulars than India, who were without the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Ravindra Jadeja. But that was just on paper. In the game, India were supreme, while South Africa never even arrived. They won the toss, opted to bat and then in a blink of an eye were folded for just 116 runs in 27.3 overs, courtesy of Arshdeep Singh's maiden five-wicket haul and Avesh Khan's four-fer.

Shaun Pollock and Sunil Gavaskar were not at all happy with South Africa's performance in 1st ODI match against India

India could have started the match with a wicket for Arshdeep in the very first ball but did not go for a review against Reeza Hendricks. And it hardly mattered as he dismissed the opener and Rassie van der Dussen off back-to-back deliveries, both for a duck. Tony de Zorzi then became the left-armer's third victim while Arshdeep single-handedly reduced the hosts to four down with the wicket of Heinrich Klaasen in the final ball of the powerplay.

Avesh Khan worked through the remainder of the line-up as things went from bad to worse for South Africa. No. 8 Andile Phehlukwayo was the top scorer for the home team with his 49-ball 33, but Arshdeep returned to remove him and completed his fifer before Kuldeep Yadav ended South Africa's misery with the final wicket.

Furious at South Africa's horror show in the opening game, former captain Shaun Pollock launched an attack questioning the need for a modern-day approach of an attacking brand of cricket when the team is losing wickets at regular intervals. Calling it "nonsense" and unacceptable, he cited the example of David Miller, who scored a century recently in the ODI World Cup, but lost his wicket to a needless cover drive when he could have stuck around for at least 10 overs.

"Try and work their way out of the situation and get themselves into trouble and get bowled up very cheaply. And you can't do that. I mean, I can't accept that. The modern player will say, oh, you've got to be positive, all that nonsense. I can't accept that as a former South African, that always when you get put into pressure, you just fall down," he told Star Sports after South Africa's eight-wicket loss. "For all honesty, what you could have been done there today is you could have just blocked out ten overs. You couldn't have scored a run for ten overs just to absorb some pressure and then you could have continued to bat and they would have posted 200 and something on the board. So, I mean, if you look at the class of...for example, David Miller, I mean, he walks to the crease, they're in trouble. He got a 100 in the World Cup semifinal in the same situation, but today he walks to the crease. He tries to execute a booming cover drive on the up and nicks off when his team needed him just to be there for a period of time.

"So I do get the point. We were old dinosaurs. We didn't play as positively as the modern player plays. But I'm afraid at some stage you have to take on that responsibility and say, I've got to dig in here today. Unfortunately, the best thing for the team is that I don't be positive and I actually just get myself in and get a decent runs," he added.

In response to Pollock's rant, former India captain Sunil Gavaskar, who was also part of the panel, explained that this attitude that the veteran South African cricketer has been complaining about, stems from having too many options. Gavaskar's remark suggested that modern-day players have the option of participating in overseas T20 leagues across the globe which happens all year long.

“Back in my day, we didn’t have too many options. If we failed, we had to go back to club cricket. And there was no money in club cricket back then. Today, players have options. You play for your country, you play T20 leagues… you still can put the food on the table. And therefore there is this tendency to go bang-bang (with the bat)! (There is a tendency) If they don’t score runs, if they don’t take wickets, if they get dropped, so what? They will still have some T20 contract somewhere, if not with the IPL, then some league or the other. That makes players take a lot less responsibility. They try to take the easy way out, which is to go ‘bang-bang’. If they succeed, great. If they don’t, the team is 116 all out. So what? There will be another match two days later,” said Gavaskar.