Thiruvananthapuram: Fast bowlers Arshdeep Singh and Deepak Chahar and Suryakumar Yadav’s superb batting helped India beat South Africa by eight wickets in the first ODI here on Wednesday. Bowling first, India restricted South Africa to 106 for eight. In reply, the target was achieved in 16.4 overs for the loss of two wickets. On a damp and bouncy pitch, Suryakumar Yadav scored an unbeaten 50 off 33 balls while KL Rahul played an unbeaten knock of 51 off 56 balls.
Former India head coach Ravi Shastri had already termed the pitch as not fit for T20 cricket and the batsmen of both the teams faced problems on it. India lost the wickets of captain Rohit Sharma (0) and Virat Kohli (3) early but Suryakumar and Rahul then shared a 90-run partnership to take India to victory. Kagiso Rabada sent Rohit to the pavilion and Anrich Norkia sent Kohli to the pavilion.
Earlier, Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out of the match after a back problem resurfaced after which left-arm pacers Arshdeep (3 for 32) and Chahar (2 for 24) moved the ball both ways. Troubled the batsmen. Both these bowlers took full advantage of the bounce from the surface and the swing in the air to move the ball in both directions.
South Africa’s team came on the back foot in the first 15 balls of the match and before the team could understand anything, their score was five for nine runs. Chahar first caught Temba Bavuma (00) in the net of the outswing and then swinging him and bowled the ball coming in. Arshdeep started by taking the ball away from left-handed batsman Quinton de Kock (01) and the batsman tried to strike the ball on the wickets. Another left-handed batsman, Riley Rosesau (00), also got caught by wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant on Arshdeep’s inswing going away from him.
However, the ball that will be remembered for a long time, Arshdeep bowled David Miller (0). Miller was expecting an outswing and he came on the front foot for it but the bowler bowled an inswing and the batsman got bowled in an attempt to play the shot.
Tristan Stubbs (00), the new sensation of T20 cricket, also played Chahar’s bouncing ball in the air and Arshdeep took a good catch while jumping forward. After losing five wickets, the road to return was very difficult for South Africa and It happened as expected.
Aidan Markram (25 runs in 24 balls), Wayne Parnell (24 runs in 37 balls), and Keshav Maharaj (41 runs in 35 balls) played an important role in taking the team’s score past 100 runs. The visiting team, however, never recovered from the setbacks in the first three overs of the power play. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (8 for no wicket in four overs) and left-arm spinner Axar Patel (1 for 16 in four overs) bowled quite economical. Harshal Patel also took two wickets for 26 runs.
