Dhoni laments toothless Indian bowling

Captain MS Dhoni was left frustrated by his fast-bowling group at the end of South Africa's record-breaking hammering of India in the fifth ODI in Mumbai.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar's 1-106 is the second-worst ODI figures in the history of the game, and for a bowler who has never bowled with a lot of pace but relied on swing to get his wickets, that movement was conspicuous by its absence in this series.

Kumar's speed has indeed increased but without that swing, it has been a struggle. His woes were further exacerbated on a flat Wankhede Stadium track.

Fellow speedster Mohit Sharma added to his side's troubles after conceding 84 from his seven overs.

"Our fast bowlers can swing the ball, but they can't push the batsmen onto the back foot," Dhoni said post match.

"Even the ones who bowl quick, they can't get the same bounce as the others do. Almost all strategies were used – from outside off-stump yorkers, to cramping the batsmen, to bowling bouncers – but there are days when it doesn't work."

The spinners, Harbhajan Singh, Amit Mishra and Axar Patel leaked an incredible 213 runs from 28 overs.

Patel went wicket-less from eight overs and his contribution with the bat of 37 runs from the first four ODIs also brings his position in the side into question.

Patel's place in the side comes in for question as well.

"We will keep talking that we don't have a seaming allrounder but we have tried Stuart Binny and people have criticised that also," Dhoni said of Patel's selection.

"If you talk about allrounders in India, who is your best seaming allrounder, it's Binny. Two best spinning allrounders, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel.

"Whether you like it or don't like it, these are our best allrounders we have. We have to make the most out of them."

As Dhoni suggested however, some days it simply "doesn't work", and the AB de Villiers factor is one that cannot be discounted in the wash-up.

De Villiers scores his runs for fun. On a typical Chennai turner last game, where he admitted he felt he was never in, he smashed an easy century, his second  of the series.

In Mumbai, where spinners were going to find it difficult to extract as much turn as in Chennai, he was unstoppable from the word go.

He hit his first six off the sixth ball he faced and went on to pepper the short Wankhede fence with 10 more.

His century came from just 57 balls and by the time he departed in the 47th over, South Africa were sniffing at the 400-run mark and the series had been taken right out of India's grasp.

De Villiers, however, picked du Plessis' ton (133 from 115 retired hurt) as the best of the three, after opener Quinton de Kock (109 off 87) also blasted a hundred.

"(Du Plessis) controlled the innings and allowed me and (Quinton) de Kock to free up. We got quick hundreds because of Faf's stability at the other end," de Villiers said.

"He was getting very tired but to show that kind of energy and determination towards the end was incredible.

"He didn't get a lot of credit but it was perhaps the most important knock of the three."