Sanju Samson smashed an unbeaten 86(63), while Shreyas Iyer hit a 37-ball 50 as India fell short by 9 runs against South Africa in the 1st ODI in Lucknow. The 250-run chase in a truncated 40-overs a side match saw India start on a slow note. Kagiso Rabada cleaned up Shubman Gill on 3. Following his dismissal Wayne Parnell removed Shikhar Dhawan on 4. Ruturaj Gaikwad struggled to get going and was stumped after 42-ball 19.
Temba Bavuma, winning captain, said, A good fight at the end, obviously Sanju pushed us at the end, but the boys stood firm and took us to the win. There wasn’t much grass on the surface, we lost a couple of wickets in the middle overs, myself and Aiden (Markram), but the boys knuckled down. Miller and Klaasen played positively, stung together a partnership and took us to a good score. Bowling upfront was good, in the first 15 overs by KG and Parnell. I thought we lost our way in the middle overs, gave away far too many runs, but at the end, the result did go our way and I’m happy with that.
Shikhar Dhawan, losing captain, said, Quite proud of the way the boys played the game, we didn’t get a good start, the way Shreyas, Samson and Shardul batted was excellent. We gave away too many runs on a wicket that swung and spun, the fielding wasn’t great, but this was a good learning experience for us.