In the rain-hit 1st ODI of the three-match ODI series played in Lucknow on Thursday, South Africa defeated India by 9 runs. India won the toss and opted to bowl first.
Sent into bat, South Africa made a relatively slow start in the rain-truncated 40-overs-a-side game, reaching 41 for no loss after 10 overs. However, David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen hit stroke-full half-centuries to guide South Africa to a decent total of 249/4. Down at 110 for four, Miller (75 not out off 63 balls) and Klaasen (74 not out off 65 balls) added 139 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket.
Miller played sensibly and dispatched the loose balls to the boundary to record his 18th half-century off 50 balls with the help of four boundaries and one hit over the fence. Klaasen soon followed suit and registered his fourth ODI fifty in 52 balls.
Shardul Thakur was the pick of the bowlers for India with figures of 2/35 from eight overs.
However, Death over bowling continued to haunt India. To add to that, India dropped as many as four catches, displaying a poor standard of outfield fielding.
When it comes to India's innings, Chasing a target of 250, Samson (86 not out off 63 balls) and Iyer (50 off 37 balls) struck the fifties, while Shardul Thakur (33 off 31 balls) used the long handle to good effect towards the end but it was not enough in the end.
India endured a disastrous start to their chase, losing both Shubman Gill (3) and skipper Shikhar Dhawan (4) cheaply to be reduced to 8 for 2 inside six overs.
With India needing 45 off the last three overs, Ngidi struck twin blows, dismissing Thakur and Kuldeep Yadav in successive balls to hand South Africa the upper hand.
Needing 30 off the last over, Samson tried his best, smashing one six and three fours but to no avail.
(Inputs from PTI)
