(Info4now)- South Africa beat India by 31 runs in IND vs SA 1st ODI, as India fail to capitalize a good start at Boland Park. With 297 to chase, India were 138-1 at the halfway point, but as Virat Kohli and Sikhar Dhawan depart, India start reeling. With the progress of the game, it becomes tougher to keep pace with the game condition on a slow track.

Having lost all the tosses in the Test series, for the first time South Africa win the toss and Temba Bavuma chooses to bat straight away. South Africa lose their fine opener Janneman Malan, and Bavuma and Quinton de Kock build up a fantastic partnership reading the slowness of the pitch. 

As de Kock and Aiden Markram fall in quick succession, Rassie Van der Dussen just fancy his Test series form. Both captain Bavuma and Van der Dussen score tons to lift the probable score of 260 or 270 upto 296. No experiment from Rahul with the ball, as he doesn’t go for Venkatesh Iyer as the sixth bowler. On a slow pitch like this, I think, the Proteas were spot on. 

On the field, Bavuma was very sharp. He introduced Markram very early in the power play and used two frontline spinners, Keshav Maharaj and Tabrez Shamsi very well. The spinners keep it wicket to wicket and take off the pressure of the pace bowlers in the death. It was tough for both the teams to adapt to this format of cricket against numerous T20 games and scheduled Test cricket.