Four Matches, Four Wins: South Korea Beat Indonesia by 42 Runs to Complete a Clean Sweep

By the afternoon game, the series had already gone. South Korea had won the morning match to go 3-0 up, and what was left at Yeonhui was a question of pride for one side and completeness for the other. Indonesia won the toss and chose to field, which meant that for the first time in four matches South Korea had to set a target rather than chase one.

They set a good one. 172 for 7, built on a 54-run second-wicket stand and finished with a rush — 56 runs from the last 4.4 overs. Kavin Chaddha made 61 and, for a while, Indonesia were in the hunt at 124 for 4. Then they lost four wickets for five runs. South Korea won by 42 runs and take the four-match series 4-0.

Three times in this series South Korea had been handed a target. This time they had to decide for themselves what was enough. Sageer Ahmad went early, caught behind off Gede Wiguna at 11 for 1, but Dilruksha and Daham Madampage put on 54 for the second wicket, and between them they hit six sixes — three each. Until that stand was broken at 65 in the ninth over, a big total was there for the taking.

Indonesia pulled it back well for a time. Ida Bagus Nara took 3 for 27 — Dilruksha, Madampage and Aamir Lal — and from 65 for 1 South Korea slipped to 116 for 6 after 15.2 overs. That is where Sameera Maduranga and the lower order took over. Maduranga finished 28 not out from 21 with four fours. Sameera Pitabeddara struck 22 from 10 balls with two sixes, adding 35 with Maduranga for the seventh wicket, and Chamith Ranasinghe hit 14 not out from 6 at the very end. South Korea scored 56 from the last 28 balls of their innings.

Then the bowlers did what they have done all series. Chamith Ranasinghe had Priandana caught in the first over. Alam Nakash, who had taken two wickets in the morning, took two more here — Rohit Sharma lbw and Dharma Kesuma bowled — and Indonesia were 26 for 3 after four overs. Areeb Khalid then took 3 for 12 in three overs, including the wicket that mattered most: Chaddha, bowled.

Kavin Chaddha came in at 25 for 2 in the fourth over and played the innings Indonesia had been waiting for all series. Sixty-one from 48 balls, six fours, and for long stretches he was the batter dictating terms. He added 47 with Kadek Gamantika before Gamantika was run out for 21, and then 51 more with Ahmad Ramdoni, who hit Indonesia's only six of the innings. At 124 for 4 in the 18th over, Indonesia were behind the rate but still in the game.

Then it went in a rush. Wickets fell at 124, 125, 129 and 129 — four for five runs in a little over two overs — and the chase was over long before the last ball. It was a cruel way for Chaddha's innings to end, and it should not be allowed to obscure what he did. On a day when Indonesia lost twice, he gave them the best hour they had.

With the ball, Indonesia were better than the final margin suggests. Nara's 3 for 27 and Wiguna's 2 for 27 were good returns, and Priandana took a wicket with his only over. It was the last few overs — and a South Korean lower order that kept hitting — that took the target out of reach.

The second game produced the highest total of the day, and South Korea's 172 came with nine fours and nine sixes. Indonesia managed six fours and one six. South Korea scored at 8.6 an over; Indonesia at 6.5. Four of Indonesia's eight wickets were bowled and one more was lbw, a pattern that had run through the series: South Korea's bowlers kept attacking the stumps, and it kept working.

Balage Dilruksha. 70 not out, 73 not out, 64 not out, and finally, in the last innings of the series, 44 from 31 balls before Priandana held the catch off Nara. That is 251 runs from 178 balls, and he was dismissed once in four innings. For three matches Indonesia searched for a way to get him out; when they finally found it, the series was already gone. He leaves Incheon having been, quite simply, the difference between the sides.

Areeb Khalid. Three for 12 in three overs to close the series, taking him to eight wickets across the four matches. It was his spell that turned 124 for 4 into a procession.

Kavin Chaddha. On the losing side, but his 61 from 48 was Indonesia's best innings of the day, and the kind of innings that, with a little support, wins matches. It is the one Indonesia should take home with them.

Mention, too, for Aamir Lal, wicketless here for the first time in the series but finishing with 10 wickets from 16 overs for 66 runs — the bowler who set the tone in all three chases.

We did not publish a preview for this match. Our only preview of the series made Indonesia the favourites, and South Korea won all four games — three of them by seven wickets or more, and this one by 42 runs. There is no gentle way to put that: we got the series wrong, and South Korea were the better side in every match.

The series is over, 4-0 to South Korea. For the hosts, there is a great deal to carry forward: an opener in remarkable form, a bowling attack that never let Indonesia settle, and, in this last game, a lower order that showed it could finish an innings as well as a chase. For Indonesia, the lessons are plainer but no less valuable. The starts were there; Chaddha's 61 showed the middle overs can be won. What they need now is for the next innings like it to have someone at the other end.