After rivalling during India’s tour of South Africa, both the teams — India and South Africa — came together for a noble cause. The Indian and the Proteas sides collectively donated a big amount of R1,00,000 (Rs 5.57 lac) to the Cape Town Water Crisis fund which will be used drill borewells and also will be spent to supply bottled water. The cheque was given to the Gift of the Givers Foundation after India won the last T20I match in Cape Town by 7 runs.
According to several reports, Cricket South Africa released a statement in which Protea skipper Faf du Plessis stated that he took this initiative after having discussed the water crisis with Indian skipper Virat Kohli. He said,
“Both teams had the first-hand experience of the Water Crisis in Cape Town and, having chatted to Virat, we decided to get our teams to sign some jerseys which we auctioned off with the funds raised going to assist the Cape Town Water Crisis. We also wanted to create awareness and hope that other organizations and sports codes follow in our direction.”
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#CSAnews Proteas and Indian teams make donation to #SaveWater and #EveryDropCounts campaigns in Cape Town Water Crisis … https://t.co/PhZM6YKm4Y pic.twitter.com/hpOjA6iT4A
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) February 27, 2018
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On the other hand, Virat Kohli also stated the reason why the Indian side felt the need to contribute to this cause. He said,
“Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and whenever we visit and play at Newlands, we are treated extremely well by the local people. By creating awareness of the drought, we are playing our part in highlighting the drought so people can see the seriousness of what’s taking place in the Mother City.”
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For the Indian cricket team, it turned out to be a great series at the end. After losing the Test series by 2-1, they came back strong and won the first-ever bilateral ODI series on the South African soil. Skipper Virat Kohli became the first ever ODI batsman to score 500+ runs in an ODI rubber.