All-round South Africa saunter to 31-run win in 1st ODI against India at Paarl

The Indian cricket team began the tour of South Africa 2021-22 with high hopes of winning the three-match test series for Freedom Trophy. The expectations were certainly not out of place given that South Africa are a team under transition and India, despite all that has been happening over the last three months or so in context to Virat Kohli's captaincy, are a robust unit, touted to finally make their mark in one of the toughest venues.

But Wednesday brought about a third consecutive defeat for the Indian team against an inexperienced but determined South African side, who took a lead of 1-0 in the three-match ODI series with a comfortable 31-run victory in the first match at the Boland Park in Paarl.

There is certainly not a lot that separates the fourth-placed India and South Africa, at the fifth position, if one has to check the global rankings for teams in ODI cricket. But on Wednesday, South Africa looked a far sharper, organised, determined and a unit that executed plans to perfection.

On the other hand, India continued to reel amid the drama that has been happening with their leadership, producing an insipid show both with the bat and the ball to fall behind in the series.

KL Rahul, after losing the second Test at Wanderers by a huge margin, saw his captaincy debut for India spoiled by South Africa on Wednesday. Rahul had earlier captained India in the second Test at the Wanderers in Johannesburg and lost by 7 wickets.

The way India lost the first ODI would surely send the visiting team to the drawing board and set off the panic alarm given that they have been outplayed and outmatched in almost all departments.

Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen added 204 runs for the fourth wicket which pushed South Africa to a competitive total of 296/4 in their 50 overs. Both Bavuma and van der Dussen brought up their centuries while putting the Indian bowling attack to a stern test, in which the visitors largely failed.

And there was further failure in store for Rahul and company when they set out to chase a little under 300 on a pitch which offered plenty of runs. Rahul himself made 12, with his scores spiraling downwards alarmingly after hitting a fine century at the start of the tour.

The embattled Kohli scored 53 and was out for a soft dismissal but Shikhar Dhawan once again presented a strong case for himself with an 84-ball 79, studded with 10 boundaries.

And for what it was worth, Shardul Thakur waged a lone battle when the cause was lost long ago, with a fine 50 not out from 43 balls, for which he struck 5 boundaries and 1 six while adding 51 runs unbeaten for the ninth wicket with the new vice-captain Jasprit Bumrah.

India could manage only 265/8 from their 50 overs. The opening partnership was of 46 runs between Rahul and Dhawan but it was the second-wicket stand, for 92 runs between Kohli and Dhawan, which put India back on track in the chase.

Playing in his first match as non-captain for the first time since 2016, Kohli produced a picture-perfect innings in which he looked calm, composed and determined to put up a strong total for himself. However a delivery from South Africa left-arm spinner Tabraiz Shamsi seemed to have stopped a bit before hitting the bottom of the bat of Kohli. A simple catch was collected by South Africa captain Bavuma at short midwicket.

Kohli made 51 from 63 balls with only 3 boundaries but never did he look like he was in a rush or under pressure given all that has been happening off the field. He certainly did enjoy batting in the company of his longtime friend and teammate Dhawan, who continued to pile up impressive scores despite criticism and selectors not favouring him as much as they used to.

India's fight with the bat fizzled out the moment the pair of Kohli and Dhawan was separated. The wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, who was coming off a fine century in the third Test, could manage only 16 from 22 balls whereas Shreyas Iyer, selected ahead of Suryakumar Yadav made a 17-ball 17 with the help of one boundary.

After the promise of Hardik Pandya playing out the way it did and the experiment with Tamil Nadu's Vijay Shankar not working out, India's new all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer is now auditioning for the role of fast bowling all-rounder in the series.

But Venkatesh surprisingly get a single over to bowl, and the left-handed aggressive batsman was dismissed for only 2 which did not help India's case at all. Ravichandran Ashwin, playing in his first ODI since 2017, managed a 13-ball 7 before he was snaffled by Andile Phehlukwayo for his third wicket in the game.

Phehlukwayo had earlier dismissed Pant to go past former India captain and legendary spinner Anil Kumble as the highest wicket-taker at the Boland Park in 50-over internationals with 8 wickets in four matches.

Earlier in the innings, Bavuma scored his first century in ODI cricket in six years while van der Dussen continued to prove why he is one of the best batsmen in the format while averaging close to a mighty 70.

Bavuma made 110 from 143 balls with the help of 8 boundaries while his partner van der Dussen seemed to have recovered from disappointing run in the Test series, piling up an unbeaten 129 from 96 balls with the help of 9 boundaries and 4 sixes.

The 204-run stand between Bavuma and van der Dussen was also the second best partnership for the fourth wicket by any team against India in one-day cricket, which was agonisingly shy of the 206-run stand between Pakistan batsmen Mohammad Yousuf and Shoaib Malik in 2009 at Centurion.

India and South Africa will meet once again on Friday at this venue in Paarl for the second ODI following which they will travel to Cape Town for the third and final match of the series to be played on January 23.