🏏India vs South Africa: 1st ODI🏏 - Page 23

Temba Bavuma (South Africa Captain): I think it was close to a perfect game. We'll look to take the confidence forward into the coming games. Throughout the innings I struggled to hit the gaps. Rassie was batting on another wicket - the energy he brought in gave our innings a different impetus. The plan was to try and partner him as much as I can. From a mental point of view, it was to give him the energy that he needed. Another good debut for Marco. Obviously he's someone who can take wickets with the new ball, come in the middle-overs and bowl at the death. He's going from strength to strength. Aiden offers an extra option with the ball - especially with the new ball he can get it to skid on. Andile was also good - obviously he would have loved to have played a bigger part in the game but he understands the situation of the game. He's a big part of our team. Good to see him take charge of the situation. Our spinners have been great - Keshav was great and Shamsi was trying to use the crease. Nice to have Quinny back and lovely to see him laugh and smile in the changing room. Like I've said before he's a big player for me and the team - his energy, leadership and experience helps us a lot.

Rassie van der Dussen (Player of the Match, has to crouch big time to speak into a low-rise microphone): The key for me was to just up the intensity. I knew that I had to go for my sweeps and reverse-sweeps early on and put pressure on the spinners. It was important to just show the intent from the start and we got a partnership going on a good batting wicket. We got the momentum and put up a good score. As a unit, we were quite confident coming into this match. We've played a bit of cricket here and we felt that 285+ would put us in a good position. When Shikhar and Virat were in there, they were in the game. We had to get them out and the new batters were going to find it difficult to find their feet. Maybe we could have done better in the last ten overs as far as our bowling is concerned but that's something we can work on going forward. We've been on a long journey with this team - our world-class coaching staff has put in a lot of hard work. We know how we want to be on and off the field and how we want to conduct ourselves. I think that's coming in from Temba and the attitude that we have as a team.

Originally posted by: Bee222

Sharam karo middle order wale

Bowler ne half century kar diya aur tumlog 20 tak nahi pohunch paye 🤔

Nahi  i disagree. Top order eats balls and then gives required run rate of 7+ on difficult wicket to inexperienced middle order. No middle order can survive such a thing. It happens every match 

Originally posted by: Bee222

Yup it finished just now with India losing 😭

2 more matches to go in this series now..

Oh no i thought they were gonna win😲

when is next one?

As the punters and cricket pundits predicted earlier, Shardul Thakur is a surprise pack, he carried  India's hopes till last. 

It is unfortunate for India lost a match with such talented players in our team. 

Anyway, there must be a loser to make others win the games.! 😆 

Let us hope for the best for the rest of the 2 games. 

Congratulations to Kohli and Shardul for their half centuries.  I guess that was not enough.

Congratulations to South Africa for the win.🥳

Cheers..

Originally posted by: Harish111

Nahi  i disagree. Top order eats balls and then gives required run rate of 7+ on difficult wicket to inexperienced middle order. No middle order can survive such a thing. It happens every match 

Middle order ka kaam hi yahi hai, that they will steady the ship in case the top order fails. 100+ from the openers is amazing for sure, but not something we can expect everyday.

I do agree that Kohli should've stayed on for longer, esp with Rahul's abysmal 12 and Dhawan gone too. But he did at least make a half century before departing. But the middle order, none of them even got to 20s! Agar thoda sa bhi support mil jaate unse, then India would've made it today. What Shardul did singlehandedly was supposed to be their job.

So yeah. It's the team as a whole that let us down. The top order failed us first. But middle order failed us completely.

Originally posted by: evilxbalaa

Oh no i thought they were gonna win😲

when is next one?

I thought so too  But sab bigad gaya 🥺

21st ko hai next match.. and then 23rd

The bottom line is, every player has a role to play and they need to fulfill their responsibilities most of the times.  In our case they fulfill their responsibilities just some times.  For example, if KL Rahul is not comfortable playing Markram, he needs to study Markram and his bowling style to overcome the discomfort.  It is not about how well one bats.  It is about how well one adapts to each playing condition and each bowler they face.  That is the practice they need to do before each tour.

Cheers..

Originally posted by: Savera84

The bottom line is, every player has a role to play and they need to fulfill their responsibilities most of the times.  In our case they fulfill their responsibilities just some times.  For example, if KL Rahul is not comfortable playing Markram, he needs to study Markram and his bowling style to overcome the discomfort.  It is not about how well one bats.  It is about how well one adapts to each playing condition and each bowler they face.  That is the practice they need to do before each tour.

Cheers..

Well said Raji, also india need to stop relying on top 3 and focus on middle order too.