Johannesburg: Hosts South Africa produced a clinical all-round performance as they crushed India by 141 runs runs in the first one day international, taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
This is the second biggest margin of victory by the South Africans against India in the ODIs played between the two teams.
After hammering the Indian bowlers into submission with a massive score of 358 for four, the five-pronged South African pace attack came out all guns blazing to bowl out the visitors for 217 in 41 overs. It was thorough professional performance by South Africa as Indians were outplayed in all departments.
Skipper MS Dhoni fought gamely scoring 65 off 71 balls (8×4, 1×6) as most of the top-order batsmen found it difficult to counter the pace of Dale Steyn (3/25 from 8 overs), bounce generated by Morne Morkel (1/29 from 8 overs) and the controlled swing bowling by Ryan McLaren (3/49 from 8 overs).
The South African pace attack once again exposed Indian batsmen’s inability to cope with pace, swing and bounce in adverse conditions after the trio of Quinton de Kock (135), AB De Villiers (77) and JP Duminy (59 not out) pulverised the young Indian bowlers by hitting them all around the park.
From the onset, Indian openers Rohit Sharma (18, 43 balls) and Shikhar Dhawan (12) found it difficult to score runs as Steyn and Morkel swung the ball at a great pace making life difficult for the batsmen.
Rohit, in fact played and missed a lot of deliveries as got off the mark only in the 17th delivery that he faced. Dhawan on the otherhand hit three boundaries but when a Morkel delivery kicked up, the Delhi lad mistimed a pull-shot which was taken by wicketkeeper de Kock running backwards.
Rohit and Virat Kohli (31, 35 balls, 5×4) batted for nearly 10 overs adding 46 runs in the process. Steyn and Morkel bowled with controlled aggression as they gave away very little.
Morkel was unlucky not to dismiss Kohli batting on two, when he got one to kick from short of good length but de Kock in his bid to engage in premature celebrations dropped the nick.
Kohli in fact took a blow on the rib cage but played some lovely drives including a forward defensive push off Steyn that raced through extra cover while another on-drive off the very next delivery also fetched him a boundary.
A cover drive off Morkel and a pull shot from a McLaren delivery had touch of class.
However McLaren had the last laugh when he bowled one in the off-stump channel that moved away with Kohli dabbing at it and Kallis at first-slip took the resultant edge.
The lanky fast-medium bowler then rattled Yuvraj Singh with short ball followed by a fuller delivery that swung in to the left-hander hitting the middle-stump.
India lost their fourth wicket when David Miller at short cover effected a brilliant run-out with a direct throw that found Rohit short of his crease.
At 65 for four, Dhoni and Raina (14) had a partnership of 43 runs but a magnificent throw by Dale Steyn from deep square leg boundary saw Raina being run-out despite a desperate dive.
At 109 for five, the chances of an Indian win became bleak although Dhoni tried his best in company of Jadeja (29) adding 50 runs before Kallis castled the Saurashtra all-rounder. Dhoni lofted McLaren for a six to complete his 51st international half-century but ran out of partners. (PTI)
SCORECARD
South Africa:
H Amla b Shami 65
Q de Kock c & b Kohli 135
J Kallis c Jadeja b Shami 10
AB de Villiers b Shami 77
JP Duminy not out 59
D Miller not out 5
Extras: (lb-2, w-4, nb-1) 7
Total: (4 wkts; 50 overs) 358
FOW: 1-152, 2-172, 3-247, 4-352
Bowling: Mohit 10-0-82-0, Kumar 9-0-68-0, Shami 10-1-68-3, Ashwin 10-0-58-0, Jadeja 8-0-58-0, Raina 1-0-7-0, Kohli 2-0-15-1
India:
R Sharma run out 18
S Dhawan c de Kock b Morkel 12
V Kohli c Kallis b McLaren 31
Yuvraj b McLaren 0
S Raina run out 14
MS Dhoni b Steyn 65
R Jadeja b Kallis 29
R A’win c de Kock b McLaren 19
B Kumar c Kallis b Steyn 0
Mohit not out 0
M Shami c & b Steyn 0
Extras: (b-4, lb-1, w-24) 29
Total: (all out, 41 overs) 217
FOW: 1-14, 2-60, 3-60, 4-65, 5-108, 6-158, 7-183, 8-190
Bowling: Steyn 8-3-25-3, Tsotsobe 9-0-52-0, Morkel 8-1-29-1, McLaren 8-0-49-3, Parnell 5-0-37-0, Kallis 3-0-20-1