KL Rahul-led Indian cricket team kickstarted the ongoing three-match ODI series with a disappointing start as they lost the first ODI against South Africa by 31 runs. Though, the Indian side was looking in a comfortable situation mid-way through the innings, however, the Indian side suffered a sudden middle-order collapse, that caused the downfall of the KL Rahul-led side in the match.
Team India had dropped from 138/1 to 199/7 as they suffered a middle-order collapse following Virat Kohli’s (51) wicket. Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer joined hands with a 29-run stand but SA dented their hopes with three quick wickets to leave India 6 down. Ashwin and Bhuvneshwar also didn’t last long and were sent back to the pavilion.
India’s star all-rounder Shardul Thakur fought back and smashed his maiden ODI fifty in a valiant knock towards the end but the asking rate shot up and the Indian side eventually lost the game by 31 runs.
After the defeat, speaking at the post-match conference, KL Rahul pointed fingers at the middle-order after they were restricted to 265/8 in their quota of 50 overs. KL Rahul talked about how India’s middle-order issues have been long-standing, highlighting the lack of wickets in the middle overs. He said:
“It was a nice game. There’s so much to learn. We started off really well, we couldn’t get wickets in the middle. We’ll look to see how we get wickets in the middle overs and stop the opposition. The middle-order couldn’t get going. We were on par for the first 20-25 overs of the game. I thought we would chase it down easily but SA bowled really well and got crucial wickets.”
He added:
“I didn’t bat after the 20th over, I don’t know if it changed drastically. Virat and Shikhar told that it was a good wicket to bat on, you just had to spend some time in the middle, unfortunately, we couldn’t get the partnership going. They did really well, they put pressure on the bowlers and we couldn’t get those wickets in the middle. 290+ was 20 runs extra, but we just needed more partnerships in the middle,”
After losing the first ODI match, the Indian side will now hope to bounce back in the second game on Friday to take the series to a decider match. Proteas will enter the second game as the favorites now.
While the ongoing 3-match ODI series isn’t a part of the ODI Super League, Rahul said that the series gives them a great opportunity to work on the shortcomings ahead of the upcoming World Cup that will take place next year. Talking about it, KL Rahul said:
“Every game is important for us, we all want to go out there and give our best performances. We haven’t played one-day cricket for a while, we have the WC in mind and we want to get the best XI on the park. We’ll make mistakes but we’ll learn from them,”
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