Xtra Time Web Desk : Team India on Wednesday suffered a 31 run defeat in the 1st ODI on the hands of a resilient South African team led by Temba Bavuma. The Proteas posted a score of 296/4 batting first, after winning the toss, courtesy of centuries from Rassie Van der Dussen and the skipper himself and restricted their opponents to a score of 265/8 to take a 1-0 lead in the 3 match ODI series.
Opting to bat first, the Proteas made a nervy start to their innings as Team India bowlers gave a decent performance in the first 15 overs as Bumrah dismissed Malan for the score of 6 and Ashwin took the wicket of de Kock making the scoreline 58/2 to give India the initial advantage. Moments later, a run out from Venkatesh Iyer put South Africa in more trouble as they were restricted to 68/3 at that stage. But soon after Markram’s run out, it was a blistering 204 run partnership from Rassie Van der Dussen (129* off 96 balls) and captain Temba Bavuma (110 from 143 balls) which took South Africa to a score of 296/4.
Coming on to bat second, needing 297 runs to win Team India lost skipper KL Rahul early for the score of 12 before Virat Kohli (51) and Shikhar Dhawan (79) weaved s steady partnership of 92 runs. The stand was however broken by South Africa’s Shamsi as he dismissed Dhawan for the score of 79 followed by Kohli for 51. The rest or the batters in Shreyas Iyer, Pant and debutant Venkatesh Iyer could not build on that and fell out cheaply for scores of 2, 17 and 16 respectively. It was although Shardul Thakur’s fighting innings of 50* which took India to 265/8, otherwise the loss could have been worse.