South Africa conceded 23 extras in the first ODI in Ranchi on Sunday. That's 17 more than India - who won by, you guessed it, 17 runs. In Raipur on Wednesday, the South Africans squandered 24 runs on sundries. But this time the Indians gave up only six fewer extras, and the visitors won by four wickets with four balls to spare.

Of the 47 runs South Africa have gifted their opponents in the series, eight were leg byes. The other 39 - 82.98% of the total - were self-inflicted in the shape of wides and byes.

Of course, wides aren't only about runs. Because of them, the South Africans bowled 10 extra deliveries in Ranchi. Had India not faced those balls they would have totalled 334/5 instead of 349/8. The visitors were dismissed for 332, so they would still have been short.

South Africa bowled 15 bonus balls in Raipur. Had that not happened India would again, with spooky symmetry, have made 334/5. Not the 358/5 they ended up with.

India sent down 11 wides and a no-ball in Raipur, where South Africa needed eight off the last two overs. Corbin Bosch and Keshav Maharaj knew they could get them in singles, and they did. Bosch all but told the host broadcaster exactly that: "I just said to Kesh, 'Let's run hard. We still need less than a run-a-ball. Let's stay nice and calm, run nice and hard, and we'll be able to pick off the runs.'"

That was a sound approach, but if India hadn't needed to bowl those dozen additional deliveries again they would have won. You only need to go back as far as Sunday, when the home side bowled just three wides, to see the contrast.

This, you would be within your rights to argue, is bloodless nit-picking over the nuts and bolts of the game; an accounting exercise rather than an appreciation for the efforts of some of the finest players in cricket; a miserable approach that leans on ifs and buts.

Who wants to fixate on the extras on a day when Ruturaj Gaikwad scored his first ODI century, a scintillating 105 off 83; when the all-time giant we call Virat Kohli added a 93-ball 102 to the 135 he scored on Sunday - his 53rd hundred in ODIs and the 11th time he has reached three figures in consecutive innings in the format; when Aiden Markram kept South Africa in it with a bracing, hard-driven 110 off 98; when Matthew Breetzke and Dewald Brevis nurtured the flame with half-centuries and a stand of 92 off 64; when Tony de Zorzi's removal from the equation with a hamstring injury when 31 were needed off as many balls might have been the difference between winning and losing; when South Africa completed the joint-highest target chased against India, the second-highest chase in an ODI in India, South Africa's third-highest anywhere, and their highest away from home.

Good luck picking a player-of-the-match out of that array. But someone had to win it, and it was Markram. "I always take lessons from the previous game," he told the host broadcaster. "We knew it was going to swing early [in Ranchi] and we took up that challenge. We knew that if we had gotten off to a semi-decent start we could chase it down."

Instead, South Africa were 11/3 inside the fifth over on Sunday. Seen through that lens, they did well to get close. On Wednesday, Markram and Temba Bavuma put on 101 off 96 for the second wicket before Markram and Breetzke shared 70 off 55, which was followed by the Breetzke-Brevis blast.

"It was very similar today and we learned from our mistakes," Markram said. "I'm proud of the boys for getting us over the line. There were moments of pressure, but they stayed calm and got us the win."

Indeed, put in similar situations other incarnations of South Africa's team have choked.

"We have got eight really good batters and Kesh as well to do his thing," Markram said. "You feel that freedom as well. The boys are putting their hands up in the middle order and now the top order has to start contributing."

Ah, who's counting - as long as somebody gets the runs. Especially when there's dash and drama and the deliciousness of a contest that goes deep.

But you want to talk about wides?

Yes. Because you don't want to give the opposition free balls and runs. Especially when the margins are as slim as they have been in this series.

No-one can say with anything like certainty that the results of either of the first two ODIs would have been different had the bowlers been more disciplined. But a smaller target would have taken the edge of the urgency South Africa required on Sunday. Likewise on Wednesday, India would have been able to keep the pressure on more squarely had they been tidier with the ball.

And that might have made all the difference, in both games.