On Sunday, in Johannesburg, Arshdeep Singh became the first Indian pacer to take an ODI five-wicket haul in South Africa against South Africa. Before Arshdeep’s feat today, among Indians, only Yuzvendra Chahal in 2018 in Centurion, has achieved a similar feat.
Chahal was on the bench today and he saw Arshdeep Singh emulate his feat in an even more dominating fashion. While Chahal had bamboozled the Protea batters with his drift, turn, and guile five years ago, Arshdeep thumped them down today with his swing, changes in length, and bowling smarts.
Arshdeep Singh dismissed four of South Africa’s top five wickets today – his dismissals including Reeza Hendricks, Rassie van der Dussen, and Heinrich Klaasen. The left-arm pacer bowled a marathon 7-over spell to return with 4/23. After over half an hour, he returned to dismiss Andile Phehlukwayo to complete his maiden ODI five-wicket haul in what is just the third time he was bowling in an ODI innings.
He got assistance from the conditions, allowing him to swing the ball. He went full in his opening spell to have Hendricks chopping onto his stumps, and then have van der Dussen lbw for a first-ball duck. Arshdeep bounced out Tony de Zorzi and then bowled Klaasen with a back-of-length ball, hitting the top of the middle stump. Phehlukwayo was lbw with a full delivery.
From the other end, Avesh Khan took care of the rest with a four-wicket haul.
Fans erupted with funny memes and tweets as Arshdeep Singh took a 5-wicket haul and Avesh took 4 wickets vs South Africa:
Aiden Markram won the toss and elected to bat first.
Teams:
South Africa (Playing XI): Reeza Hendricks, Tony de Zorzi, Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram(c), Heinrich Klaasen(w), David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Nandre Burger, Tabraiz Shamsi
India (Playing XI): KL Rahul(w/c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sai Sudharsan, Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar
