Temba Bavuma, Rassie van der Dussen and bowlers help hosts win by 31 runs

Indias inexplicable middleorder collapse ensured that fine halfcenturies from Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli did not count for much as the team was handed a 31run defeat by a resolute South Africa in the opening ODIChasing a challenging 297 India were cruising at 138 for one before wickets fell in a heap dashing the hopes of the visitors who trail 01 in the threematch series Indias innings ended at 265 for eightSouth 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 204run 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 92run stand India have been guilty of relying too much on their top three in the past and once again the middleorder could not capitalise on the platform provided by Kohli and Dhawan after they lost skipper K L Rahul 12 cheaplyChase master Kohli playing his first game since his captaincy tenure ended across formats last weel hardly broke a sweat in reaching his halfcentury before a sweep shot off Tabraiz Shami a stroke he doesnt play regularly led to his downfall leaving him in disbelief Dhawan looked in sublime touch during his stay and played the Test series rising star Marco Jansen rather comfortably collecting five of his 10 fours off the tall leftarm pacerThe 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 While Pant was stumped by a lightening quick Quinton de Kock the shot selection of Shreyas and Venkatesh could have been betterShardul Thakur 50 not out off 43 tried his best towards the end but the damage had already been done Earlier Jasprit Bumrah 248 was the stand out bowler for India in an otherwise ordinary bowling effort After a sluggish start van der Dussen and Bavuma shared the second highest partnership ever against India in ODIs to ensure a competitive total for the home team South Africa opted to bat on a slow surface at the Boland Park The white ball did a bit early on with both Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar getting to move it off the pitch as well as in the airAfter an inaccurate first over the usually accurate Bumrah got his act together and had opener Janneman Malan 6 caught behind with an outswinger Expecting an incoming ball Malan was caught on the crease with his loose push taking the outside edge South Africa struggled to 39 for one in 10 overs with Indian bowlers restricting the flow of runs De Kock 27 off 41 playing his first game since announcing his Test retirement and Bavuma found the going tough with the ball not coming on to the bat De Kock perished while trying to break the shacklesAshwin featuring in his first ODI since June 2017 found de Kocks stumps with a slider as the opener went for a cut shot It became 68 for three in the 18th over when Aiden Markram got run out from a direct hit by Venkatesh after he went for a single that was not for the taking At that stage it seemed South Africa would find it tough to get past 200 but a fighting stand between Van der Dussen and Bavuma changed the course of the innings Indian bowlers looked rather ordinary in the middle overs with the wellset South African pair rotating strike regularly besides picking up an odd boundary Van der Dussen was the aggressor in the partnership from the word go as Bavuma played anchorVan der Dussen used the reverse sweep for four runs off Yuzvendra Chahal to put the leg spinner under pressure before using the conventional sweep twice to collect more boundaries He later used a free hit to smash a Shardul full toss for a six as South Africas innings found much needed momentum Two pick up shots on one knee for six over deep backward square were the highlight of van der Dussens entertaining knock He ended with nine four and four sixes Bavuma was happy picking singles at the other end while anything loose on offer was put away behind the ropes The skipper got his hundred in the 45th over while his batting partner achieved the milestone in 48th overIt was the second ODI hundred for both the batters The last over bowled by Thakur went for 17 runs taking the hosts close to 300 Thakur was the most expensive bowler bleeding 72 in his quota of 10 overs Venkatesh was not used as the sixth bowling optionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever