India fall to tons of soil

South African captain Temba Bavuma (right) is congratulated by his teammate Rassie van der Dussen after scoring a century during the first ODI against India at Boland Park in Paarl yesterday. Pic/BCCI

India's inexplicable middle-order collapse ensured that fine half-centuries from Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli did not count for much as the team was handed a 31-run defeat by a resolute South Africa in the opening ODI here on Wednesday.

Chasing a challenging 297, India were cruising at 138 for one before wickets fell in a heap dashing the hopes of the visitors who trail 0-1 in the three-match series. India's innings ended at 265 for eight.

South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma (110 off 143) and Rassie van der Dussen (129 not out off 96) had scored contrasting hundreds en route to their 204-run stand to take South Africa to 296 for four after opting to bat.

India were comfortably placed to get home when Kohli (51 off 63) and Dhawan (79 off 84) were in the middle but it all came crashing down with the end of their 92-run stand.

Shikhar Dhawan en route his 79 v SA. Pic/BCCI

India have been guilty of relying too much on their top three in the past and once again, the middle-order could not capitalise on the platform provided by Kohli and Dhawan after they lost skipper K L Rahul (12) cheaply.

Chase master Kohli, playing his first game since his captaincy tenure ended across formats last week, hardly broke a sweat in reaching his half-century before a sweep shot off Tabraiz Shami, a stroke he doesn't play regularly, led to his downfall leaving him in disbelief.

The stage was set for the likes of Rishabh Pant (16), Shreyas Iyer (17) and debutant Venkatesh Iyer (2) to get the job done but they fell in quick succession, leaving India at 188 for six from a strong 138 for one. Shardul Thakur (50 not out off 43) tried his best towards the end but the damage had already been done.

Earlier, Jasprit Bumrah (2-48) was the stand out bowler for India in an otherwise ordinary bowling effort.

Kohli goes past Sachin's overseas ODI runs record

Virat Kohli on Wednesday surpassed the legendary Sachin Tendulkar's tally of 5,065 runs to become the Indian player with most runs in away ODIs. He achieved the feat during the first ODI against South Africa here. Kohli made 51 off 63 balls, with the help of three boundaries. Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara (5,518) holds the top spot for most runs in overseas ODIs.

3
No. of Indian players to lead in ODIs without having captained in List ‘A' cricket. KL Rahul joined Syed Kirmani and Virender Sehwag in a small list to achieve the feat

Brief scores
South Africa 296-4 (T Bavuma 110, van der Dussen 129'; J Bumrah 2-48) beat India 265-8 (S Dhawan 79, V Kohli 51; A Phehlukwayo 2-26, T Shamsi 2-52) by 31 runs

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