India’s second-string side gave tough fight to an almost full-strength South African team in the first ODI of the series in Lucknow, but went down fightning by only 9 runs, falling short of South Africa’s total of 249 in a rain-curtailed 40-over-a-side match.
First with the ball, Shardul Thakur and Kuldeep Yadav dented the visitors with early strikes. However, the Proteas lifted themselves up from 110/4 in 22.2 overs to finish with 249/4 in 40 overs. The in-form David Miller, who scored 75* off 63 balls, forged a big partnership of 139* (106) with Heinrich Klaasen, who scored 74* off 65 balls.
South African bowlers were on the money from the start and had India reeling at 51/4 in the 18th with none of the top four scoring more than 20 runs and at a strike rate of over 60.
Making a case to be India’s number 4 in the ODI side, Shreyas Iyer counter-attacked with 50 runs off 37 balls, but his innings was halted by Lungi Ngidi. Sanju Samson then found Shardul Thakur as an equally aggressive partner and both put up an entertaining partnership of 93 runs off 66 balls.
With 59 runs needed off the last 4 overs, Thakur thumped Rabada for three fours in an over, however, he got out to Ngidi in the next over, where Kuldeep also got out. India needed 37 runs in the last 12 balls, but Avesh Khan wasted the penultimate over as he missed most of his slogs to Rabada.
The equation came down to 29 needed off the last 6 balls, with spinner Tabraiz Shamsi having the ball in hand. Samson produced a ray of hope for the Indians as he whacked Shamsi for 6, 4, and 4 on the first three balls.
With 15 required off the last 3 balls, though, Samson could hit only one four in those three balls. The Kerala batter remained not out on 86 off 63 balls, smacking 9 fours and 3 sixes in his innings.
India’s stand-in skipper Shikhar Dhawan was happy with the fightback Indian batters showed on a difficult pitch. “Quite proud of the way the boys played the game, we didn’t get a good start, the way Shreyas, Samson and Shardul batted was excellent. We gave away too many runs on a wicket that swung and spun, the fielding wasn’t great, but this was a good learning experience for us,” Dhawan said.
As usual, netizens came up with some hilarious memes and tweets trolling Team India for their loss in the first ODI.
Here are some of them:
This is why Sanju played consiously.
India’s tail ender’s batting is pathetic— ✨Athiran✨⚽🏏 (@Hashyzzz) October 6, 2022
India lost the game because of their fielding, no doubt.
But all those who say batting depth doesn’t matter in white-ball cricket..well, this game is the best example of it.
Another bowler who could bat and we would have won the game. #CricketTwitter
— Anuj Nitin Prabhu 🏏 (@APTalksCricket) October 6, 2022
If Ruturaj Gaikwad can play ODI cricket then Cheteshwar Pujara definitely deserves to play T20I for India.
— Vishal. (@SportyVishal) October 6, 2022
If Ruturaj and Ishan did not have played test knocks, Samson could have finished this.
Appreciation tweet for Sanju Samson 💗 Highest run scorer
Come back stronger team India
Believe 🤞#INDvsSA#SanjuSamson pic.twitter.com/zGQy6NVqfB— Aaradhya Prajapati (@Aaradhya_2003) October 6, 2022
Ruturaj Today 😹 pic.twitter.com/yRFqjIhlXh
— ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ ︎ (@Biryani___) October 6, 2022
Nowadays.
India’s batting. bowling and fielding pic.twitter.com/5LvaIQ1n5N— Trishank (@trishank_vk) October 6, 2022
India was batting at a run rate of 2 and a half after 15 overs…show some mercy on Samson, could have done things differently but to make a match of it, after such a horrendous show by top 4 speaks volumes of his knock!
More so when every knock of his is scrutinized.— Gagan Chawla (@toecrushrzzz) October 6, 2022
Did India miss a trick by not including Sanju Samson in the T20 World Cup squad?
— Sarang Bhalerao (@bhaleraosarang) October 6, 2022
Klaasen against India in rain shortened games is the best player in the history of cricket
— Dave (@CricketDave27) October 6, 2022
Kishan has too many loopholes to cover in his game against all kinds of bowling. If he isn’t keeping, he’s a specialist holding a critical middle-order spot in your 2nd ODI side. That’s a big no-no. India should start their replacement search for him next match. Try Patidar.
— KASHISH (@crickashish217) October 6, 2022
Avesh khan’s batting right now explains a lot about his bowling.
— ∆nkit🏏 (@CaughtAtGully) October 6, 2022
Lol.. Avesh trying to slog Rabada instead of taking a single 😂 two balls in a row 😂😂 cricket is funny man#INDvSA
— Jatin Khandelwal (@jr_khandelwal) October 6, 2022
