India comprehensively won the first ODI of the three-match series against South Africa, thanks to spectacular performances from their inexperienced seam attack.
Coming into the ODI series, India’s seamers had the experience of playing a combined 11 ODIs. South Africa’s strong showing in Johannesburg, especially India wearing pink kits, faced a difficult task after losing the toss and being sent off.
However, the close attacks of Mukesh Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan responded well. Mukesh bowled a tight first over to set the tone, followed by Arshdeep’s double wicket over
The left-arm seamer managed to take South Africa’s first four wickets before Abesh joined the group. On his first substitution, Avesh next picked up his four wickets in quick succession, but South Africa soon found him stumbling to 73-8.
The partnership for the ninth wicket lasted nine overs, the longest the pair spent at the South African crease in the match, with Arshdeep taking the fifth wicket in the form of Andile Phelukwayo, his first five in international cricket. I recorded four. Kuldeep Yadav googled Nande Berger to end South Africa’s innings on 116. He achieved sub-120 for the third consecutive year in the ODI match against India.
In response, Sai Sudarsan started his debut with a borderline first ball. Ruturaj Gaikwad was dismissed easily but Shreyas Iyer and Sudarsan added 88 runs for the second wicket to take India to safety.
Sudarsan remained unbeaten with 55 runs off just 43 balls, hitting nine boundaries and registering the third-highest total in an Indian opener on men’s ODI debut.
India ended the chase with exactly 200 balls and eight wickets to spare, making it the third-biggest victory in terms of balls remaining in an ODI outside India.
Watch the highlights of the first South Africa vs India ODI here:
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