India and South Africa battled in the first ODI of the six-match series at Durban.
India lost the toss and was put in to field first. Indian captain Kohli said though he would have liked to bat first, however, given that he chased so well, the decision made for him was not a bad one. India brought in Kedar Jadhav and Ajinkya Rahane, while the spin twins retained their places.
The South African openers were steady, but Bumrah trapped Amla LBW with the score on 30. After a 53 run partnership between De Kock and Du Plessis; Chahal accounted for De Kock, as he was dismissed LBW. However, replays showed that the ball would have missed the stumps and De Kock didn’t even wait for the decision and walked, let alone asking for the review.
Aiden Markram, who replaced AB de Villiers in the team, was removed by Chahal for 9, Kuldeep clean bowled JP Duminy for 12 and had Miller caught by Kohli for 7. All this happened, while Du Plessis was playing a captain’s knock.
He found a partner in Chris Morris, who made 37 runs and the duo, added 74 runs for the 6th wicket partnership. But after Morris was cleaned up by Kuldeep; Du Plessis went on the attack and scored a splendid century.
He was dismissed for 120 off 112 balls and hit 11 fours and 2 sixes. South Africa scored 269/8 in 50 overs.
For India, the spin twins were magnificent as Kuldeep took 3/34 and Chahal took 2/45 in their respective 10 overs.
Indian chase was put into momentum by Dhawan, who made 35 runs in 20 balls; after Rohit was dismissed by Morkel, caught by De Kock, for 20. However, Dhawan was run out after a mix-up with his captain. India were 67/2 at that stage and Ajinkya Rahane joined captain Kohli.
However, that proved to be the last wicket South Africa picked up in the game for a while, as Kohli and Rahane added 189 runs for the 3rd wicket.
Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane ran brilliantly between the wickets and hit boundaries when the time came. Kohli made his 33rd ODI century and went on to score 112 in 119 balls with 10 fours; while, Rahane scored 79 off 86 balls and was caught by Tahir off Phehlukwayo. MS Dhoni hit the winning runs, as he pulled a short ball for four.
India won the match by 6 wickets and went one up in the series.
BRIEF SCORES:
SOUTH AFRICA 269/8 (F DU PLESSIS 120; K YADAV 3/34) lost to INDIA 270/4(V Kohli 112, A RAHANE 79) by 6 wickets.
