Shreyas Iyer continued his good form from the World Cup 2023 and cracked an entertaining half-century in India’s win in the 1st ODI on Sunday against South Africa in Johannesburg.
Chasing a small target of 117 runs, Shreyas Iyer walked in to bat at number 3 in the 4th over of the chase. He attacked the bowlers right away: Iyer has been batting with a positive mindset and intent whenever the bowlers have gone short or full to him.
Shreyas Iyer thumped 6 fours and 1 six in his aggression-filled knock of 52 runs in 45 balls to get India on the brink of victory with young debutant Sai Sudharsan also batting superbly on his debut for his fifty.
Amid this aggression-laden knock from Iyer, he lost the grip of his bat during one of his pull shots and the ball flew out of his hand. Such ferociously he had swung his bat to a short ball that the bat flew out of his hand and landed near the square leg fielder, Rassie van der Dussen. Van der Dussen picked up the bat and gave it to Shreyas Iyer and both players exchanged smiles.
Shreyas Iyer loses his bat’s grip, bat flies to square leg fielder Rassie van der Dussen
The pictures of this incident have gone viral:
Arshdeep Singh’s 5-fer downs South Africa
Arshdeep Singh was the Man of the Match and the star player in India’s 8-wicket win with his magnificent 5-wicket haul that broke the back of the top order of the South African batting line-up.
Arshdeep became the first Indian pacer to take an ODI five-wicket haul in South Africa against South Africa. Before Arshdeep, among Indians, only leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal in 2018 in Centurion, had achieved a similar feat.
From the other end, Avesh Khan was at his accurate best as well as kept a high pace. In his 6th ODI match, Avesh recorded his best ODI figures of 4/27.
The second ODI is slated for Tuesday at St George’s Park, Gqeberha.
