India vs South Africa, 1st ODI: Familiar problems haunt India as South Africa take a 1-0 lead with a 31-run win. Cricket News – Times of India

Twenty-eight overs of India’s target of 297 runs in the first ODI in Paarl, it looked like Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli were trying to tell Temba Bavuma and rope van der doosen That he is the real master of building the ODI innings. At the end of the day, Bavuma and van der Dussen’s 204-run partnership overtook the pros as South Africa registered a 31-run win to start the three-match ODI series on a strong note on Wednesday.
In the last two weeks, the wheels seem to be coming off for the Indian team. Wednesday was an example of the lack of clarity in the Indian dressing room. A 92-run stand by Dhawan (79 off 84) and Kohli (51 off 63) and barring early spells from Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, South Africa took the competition ahead of India. Perhaps the middle order has got used to hitting Kohli, Dhawan and Rohit Sharma. Even as they fell short of their respective centuries, they had set up the game. It’s just that the half-baked middle order was exposed for too long.
as it happened , Achievement:
Shardul Thakur scored an unbeaten 50 off 43, while a ninth-wicket partnership with Jasprit Bumrah for an unbeaten 51 was more about passing on the pace for the hosts.
The double centuries from captain Bavuma (110 off 143) and van der Dussen (129* off 96) were a masterclass in producing an innings. When van der Dussen joined with Bavuma at 68/3 in the 18th over, with the pitch taking a slight turn and stalling at the batsmen, it looked like a game of survival.

As the two had shown in the previous Test series, they were about much more than just survival. He hit sweep shots against spinners R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. The magic of the batting is reminiscent of Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting who were bowling out Indian spinners in the 1987 World Cup semi-final. In comparison, Keshav Maharaj’s spin attack from South Africa, Tabraiz Shamsi and Aiden Markram (sharing four wickets at a low economy rate) trounced their Indian counterparts.
KL Rahul, captaining for the first time in a List A game, was found lacking in his first assignment as India’s ODI captain.

As Bavuma and van der Dussen dug deep, the runs started to flow. Venkatesh Iyer, the sixth bowling option by Rahul, never got the ball. India’s ODI cricket has been volatile in the few ODIs it has played in the last two years. He has barely competed overseas. And two old problems in the format – the middle order and the sixth bowler – reappeared and were undone. A team claiming to have executed a major change needs to plug the loopholes that have been around for too long.
There was no point in choosing Venkatesh over Suryakumar Yadav when he was not bowling. His being a left-handed batsman could have been the only argument. Rishabh Pant once needed 182 runs down leg-side by Quinton de Kock off seamer Andile Phehlukwayo and 115 off 96 balls. His frustration till the neck of mid-wicket made his debut with just two runs to his name.
Dhawan, Kohli and Rohit Sharma have, for most of their careers, protected the middle-order with their ominous conversion rates. Every time they failed to finish a game, the middle order struggled to get the job done. 1st ODI poses more questions than answers for the head coach Rahul Dravid,