South Africa's tour of India on the brink of failure

South Africa are trailing 2-1 in the ongoing T20I series.

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South Africa are trailing 2-1 in the ongoing T20I series.

Another day/nightmare and the ledger of South Africa's tour of India will tilt into arrears. Still another and they will come home firmly on the wrong side of the equation.

Sunday's seven-wicket loss in the third T20I in Dharamsala was the visitors' fourth loss on this visit. They have also won four matches. With two T20Is to go - in Lucknow on Wednesday and Ahmedabad on Friday - the fate of the tour is in the balance.

There is much to quibble with in that statement of fact. Surely South Africa's first Test series victory in India in more than 25 years is worth greater consideration than two ticks in the win column? Surely we can't take seriously India's 2-1 success in an ODI rubber robbed of context by the fact that the next World Cup is almost two years away?

Surely. But it's just as certain that teams are measured on how many games they win and lose. Shukri Conrad's white-ball predecessor, Rob Walter, came under press and public pressure when his teams lost series that, in the bigger scheme of things, mattered little. Conrad can expect similar scrutiny.