Quick guide:
South Africa vs India
Freedom Trophy 1st ODI between India and South Africa was played at Boland Park, Paarl. It was a great build-up to this match. Both teams just finished a test series for ages where the hosts came back strong and won it with a back-to-back 4th innings chase.
Also, the long time Indian skipper and the best batter – Virat Kohli, left his red-ball captainship just before the start of the ODI series. It sure came as a shocker to a lot of fans. With everything going on, the match indeed was an interesting one to watch!
Temba Bavuma won the toss and elect to bat first on what looked to be a slow surface.
Teams
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (wk), Janneman Malan, Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma (c), Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi.
India: KL Rahul (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Shardul Thakur, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Match Summary
1st Innings
Quinton de Kock and Janneman Malan opened the innings against Jasprit Bumrah. Both Indian pacers were getting early swing. Bumrah provided an early breakthrough as Malan (6/10) nicked an away swinger to Rishabh Pant in the 5th over.
Protea’s skipper got an early life as his edge fell just short of Rishabh Pant. By the end of 1st powerplay, SA were 46-1. Ravi Ashwin was in the 12th over. It was his first ODI since 30th June 2017. He straightaway produced a chance but Shreyas Iyer couldn’t hold onto that at backward point. By the 15th over, SA scored 58-1.
Pitch was getting slow and both the batters were finding it hard to even rotate the strike. Ravi Ashwin strike straight after drinks as Quinton de Kock (27/41) chopped on an undercutter. Aiden Markram was the next man in, but he too couldn’t stay long.
Markram (4/11) got run out by Venkatesh Iyer while trying to squeeze a tight single. Proteas were 68-3 and Indian bowlers especially spinners were in control of the innings.
RVD Dussen played counterattacking cricket as he targeted Yuzvendra Chahal. SA reached 100 at the loss of 3 at the end of 23rd over. Temba Bavuma was holding fort from another end as their partnership got to 50 in just 44 balls. Protea’s skipper scored fifty (50/76*) in 28th over.
They continued rotating the strike and hitting odd boundaries. Both batters didn’t let spinners settle as they notched a 100-run stand in 96 deliveries. SA scored 210 runs by end of the 40th over with both batters Temba Bavuma (89/118) and RVD Dussen (70/62) unbeaten. They looked well set and were in complete control with 10 overs left and 7 wickets in hand.
Captain Bavuma scored his 2nd ODI ton (100/133*) in 45th over. On the other side, RVD continued scoring boundaries as he too scored reached his 2nd century in 48th over. Bumrah broke the 204-run stand as Bavuma was caught by KL Rahul at long-on. SA finished with 296-4 with RVD Dussen not out at 96 balls 129 run.
It was a monumental effort from 2 batters to take SA near the 300-run mark on a tough and slow pitch. Jasprit Bumrah was pick of the bowlers. He took 2 wickets from his 10 overs while giving away 48 runs.
Watch: South Africa vs India (highlights)
2nd Innings
Part-timer Aiden Markram started the attack from SA against KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan. The latter was looking positive as made the most of powerplay targeting the part-timer Markram and debutant Marco Jansen. It was the 9th over where Markram got the Indian skipper caught behind for 12 runs. By the end of the powerplay, India was 55-1 with Dhawan (39/37) and Kohli (4/6) as unbeaten batters.
Shikhar Dhawan reached 50 of 51 balls within 15 overs. He consistently rotated strikes along with some odd boundaries. SA pacers were looking very average against both seasoned batters. India scored 104 for a loss of 1 by 20th over. They introduced spin from both ends after from 21st over.
Initially, the Indian batter was accumulating runs against them but Keshav Maharaj broke the 92-run stand. He bowled Dhawan (79/84) with sharp turning delivery during 26th over. Former captain, Virat Kohli reached his 50 but couldn’t get going after that. Kohli (51/63) handed a catch straight to Temba at mid-wicket of Tabraiz Shamsi. India was 156-3 at the end of the 30th over with both new batters – Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer in the middle.
India lost 3 wickets in successive overs. First Shreyas Iyer (17/17) got out to Ngidi’s short delivery during 34th over. Then, de Kock stumped Rishabh Pant (16/22) off Andile Phehlukwayo. Debutant, Venkatesh Iyer also couldn’t make any mark. He (2/7) handed a catch straight to RVD at the deep square leg of Ngidi. India lost another wicket by end of the 40th over. SA was in complete control of the match as India needed another 94-runs needed with no batters left.
Shardul Thakur’s effort couldn’t take India over the line. He scored his maiden ODI half-century off 43 balls. India finished with 265-8. SA won by 31 runs. RVD Dussen received the M.O.M. award.
Proteas got 1-0 ahead in the series.
~Divyansh (Team member, Beyond the matches)
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