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India pace bowlers Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan wreaked havoc as the KL Rahul-led visitors thrashed South Africa by eight wickets in the opening One-Day International at the Wanderers here on Sunday.
On a wicket offering pace and bounce to the quicks, Avesh returned figures of 4 for 27 in his eight overs, while left-armer Arshdeep had excellent figures of 5 for 37 in 10 overs as the Proteas were dismissed for a paltry 116 in 27.3 overs.
Sai Sudharsan (55 not out) and Shreyas Iyer (52) then struck fine half centuries to chase down the target in 16.4 overs for the loss of two wickets.
India and South Africa handed debut caps to 22-year-old top order batter B Sai Sudharsan and bowling all-rounder Nandre Burger respectively.
Batting first, the Proteas lost their momentum, kept losing wickets. India's Arshdeep Singh took a fifer while Avesh Khan picked four wickets. Kuldeep Yadav finishes off the Proteas' innings with his trademark style. The Proteas managed to score just 116 runs in 27.3 overs and now India need to score 117 to win.
Earlier, Arshdeep Singh departed Hendricks and Dussen in the second over, as both the batters failed to open their account.
Just when South Africa was looking in good momentum, Arshdeep departed Zorzi (28) on the fifth delivery of 8th over, as he was caught by KL Rahul. Arshdeep Singh departed Klaasen on the very last delivery of 10 the over as he hits his stumps.
Following this, Avesh Khan departed Proteas skipper Aiden Markram (12) on the very first delivery of 11th over and then dismissed Wiaan Mulder for a golden duck in the next delivery.
He then picks up wicket of David Miller (2) on the last delivery of 13th over and following this, departs Keshav Maharaj (4) on the first delivery on the 17th over. This is the fourth wicket for him too.
Arshdeep Singh delivers his last over and picks up the wicket of Andile Phehlukwayo (33) via LBW on the very first delivery of the 26th over. This is his 5th wicket for him.
Kuldeep Yadav was brought back to finish off the Proteas' innings and he does with his trademark style in the 28th over by breaking the latter's stumps and SA's innings comes to an end.
For SA, Andile Phehlukwayo (33) scored the highest runs, followed by Tony de Zorzi (28 runs). Apart from these two players, no other batter could cross 15-runs mark.
After closing the T20 international series on a strong note, the young Team India is facing South Africa in the ODI format of the game today. KL Rahul is leading the Indian cricket team in the absence of senior players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. The South African team is also pretty young with Aiden Markram at the helm.
The ODI series marks the return of some crucial players like KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, Yuzvendra Chahal, etc.
Speaking about Samson, captain KL Rahul had said, “Sanju will bat in the middle order. That is the role he has played whenever he has played ODI cricket."
Just ahead of the first ODI match against South Africa, Deepak Chahar was forced to pull out due to some medical emergency in his family. The BCCI has decided to replace the pacer with Akash Deep.