Paarl: Centuries from Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma helped South Africa ease to a 31-run win and pick up 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series in Paarl.
The pair made 204 for the fourth wicket and helped the hosts post 297. There were half-centuries for Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli in the chase but India eventually ran out of steam, despite Shardul Thakur’s maiden ODI half-century.
KL Rahul, said, It was a nice game. There’s so much to learn. We started off really well, we couldn’t get wickets in the middle. We’ll look to see how we get wickets in the middle overs and stop the opposition. The middle-order couldn’t get going. We were on par for the first 20-25 overs of the game. I thought we would chase it down easily but SA bowled really well and got crucial wickets. I didn’t bat after the 20th over, I don’t know if it changed drastically. Virat and Shikhar told that it was a good wicket to bat on, you just had to spend some time in the middle, unfortunately we couldn’t get the partnership going. They did really well, they put pressure on the bowlers and we couldn’t get those wickets in the middle. 290+ was 20 runs extra, but we just needed more partnerships in the middle. Every game is important for us, we all want to go out there and give our best performances. We haven’t played one-day cricket for a while, we have the WC in mind and we want to get the best XI on the park. We’ll make mistakes but we’ll learn from them.
Temba Bavuma, said, We played close to a perfect game, that’s quite hard in 50-over cricket. We can take a lot of confidence. I struggled throughout the innings, Rassie seemed like batting on another wicket. That partnership was the decider. I tried to partner him as much as I could. Another good debut for him (Jansen), we feel he can take wickets with the new ball. He’s growing from strength to strength and it’s nice to see. Aiden is always an option with the ball, especially with the new ball. He’s been doing a fantastic job. Andile was good, he understood the situation. He knew what he needed to do. He’s a big player within the team. It’s good to see him take charge. Spinners have been great. Shamsi – we are trying to use him differently, using him at the death and he’s doing it well. Spinners have been good. Nice to have Quinny back, nice to see him smile. He’s a big player for me, he’s a big player for the team, his energy and his experience helps us a lot.
Rassie van der Dussen, Player of the Match, said, The key for me was to keep the intensity and up the intensity. I went in and I knew I had to go to my sweeps and reverse-sweeps and put the pressure back on their spinners. It was important to show intent from the start. We got some momentum and put on a good score. Coming in today, we were in a bit of pressure. You need to stand up as a batter, two high-pressure chases in the Test, we were confident as a group coming into this match. We knew we’d be in a good position if we could post 280+. When Shikhar and Virat were there, they were putting us under a bit of pressure. As soon as we got those two wickets, a new batter needs time to find his feet. Not the ideal last 10 overs, hopefully we can be more clinical in the future. We’ve been on a long journey with this team. We’ve put a lot of hard work in and had a lot of good chats. I think it’s coming through.