The South Africans elected to bat first after winning the toss but were restricted to 269-8 in their 50 overs after some solid work by India’s spinners.
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Duminy has led South Africa in five T20s, while Amla has been at the helm in 25 games – 14 tests, nine ODIs and two T20s. He was ably supported by Chris Morris (37) and Andile Phehlukwayo (27*) in helping his team bat the complete fifty overs.
Although, Kingsmead has a reputation for being a tough ground to chase on under lights. The duo scored 30 runs off 44 deliveries before Jasprit Bumrah (1-56) provided the initial breakthrough when he trapped Amla LBW. However, the first success came our way when Chahal dismissed de Kock followed by Aiden Markram. Kuldeep reeled off the next three wickets to put India in a strong position.
– 27th over the 5th bowl, Kuldeep Yadav to Miller and it’s out….
Call it the finger of fate, as wielded by Virat Kohli.
Kuldeep reeled off the next three wickets, deceiving JP Duminy with a ball that spun the other way and bowled him, removing the risky David Miller, and dismissing Chris Morris to end a 74-run stand with du Plessis.
Rahane proved to be an able foil for his skipper, scoring a brilliant 79 of only 86 balls, embellished with five fours and two sixes, before being caught by Imran Tahir off the bowling of Phehlukwayo. The rest of the team is our usual ODI team. “The conversations we have now are around giving a lot of guys opportunities so that when the World Cup comes, we have guys who have had time out in the middle for South Africa”. Incidentally, AB de Villiers is also out with a finger injury which he sustained during the third Test, and is unavailable for the first three ODIs in the six-match series.
After the Proteas had posted 269/8 in their assigned 50 overs, Kohli was soon at the wicket after Morne Morkel trapped the scalp of the hazardous opener, Rohit Sharma for 20 in the 6th over, leaving India at 33/1.
India have not won a bilateral series against South Africa on their soil.
Both are in fine ODI form.
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With an aggressive temperament which skipper Virat Kohli has, MS Dhoni’s calmness has been very instrumental in holding the nerves of the other players in the pressure matches.
