India vs South Africa 2nd ODI, Paarl: KL Rahul opts to bat vs Proteas

India won the toss and chose to bat against South Africa in the 2nd ODI at Boland Park, Paarl on Friday. This is a must-win game for India after losing the first game at the same venue. The match is been played on the same pitch. With the wicket expected to get slower, batting first will be vital for India to get back into the contest. “In the middle overs, we couldn’t get the partnerships going and that’s the learning from the last game. Hopefully, we can go out there today and show better performance. The batters themselves realized that’s where it went wrong, we will learn from it and we have spoken about it,” Rahul said.

The Indian cricket team made no changes to the first match which they lost in Paarl. One hopes that Venkatesh Iyer, who did not bowl a single over and was dismissed for 2, gets a chance. There was one change in the South Africa team with Marco Jansen being rested. Temba Bavuma stating the importance of early wickets. “I think there will be an opportunity in the first hour with the ball swinging and nipping a bit, if we can take a couple of wickets and put them under pressure,” Bavuma said.

India lost the first ODI in Paarl by 31 runs. Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma both smashed centuries and shared a partnership of 204, which was a record for the Proteas against India. While van der Dussen and Bavuma scored centuries, India was in a similar position with Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan scoring fifties. But, Dhawan fell for 79 and Kohli managed 51. In the process, Virat Kohli notched up his 63^rd fifty but went past 5000 runs in overseas ODIs.

South Africa hold the edge in Paarl

The highest successful total chased in Paarl is 248, which was by South Africa against Sri Lanka in 2011. The Proteas have won seven out of the last eight ODIs in Boland Park, Paarl. For KL Rahul, it was a bad start to his captaincy debut in ODIs. He had captained in the Johannesburg Test against South Africa but India lost for the first time at the Wanderers.

Read – I stay balanced and take one game at a time: KL Rahul

South Africa bounced back from 0-1 down to win a Test series 2-1 against India. They won in Johannesburg and Cape Town. The wins denied India the chance to win a Test series in South Africa for the first time. Had India won in South Africa, they would have joined the Proteas and Australia as the only teams to have won the Test series in every single country.

With South Africa winning two Tests and now the ODI in Paarl, India can at best hope to end the tour on an even keel with two wins in the last two matches. The final match will be played in Cape Town on January 23.

Playing 11s for both India and South Africa

South Africa: Quinton de Kock(w), Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma(c), Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Sisanda Magala, Tabraiz Shamsi

India: KL Rahul(c), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal