‘What a knock’- Twitterati all praise for Sanju Samson as India go down fighting to South Africa by nine runs in the first ODI

The 1st ODI between India and South Africa took place at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow. India won the toss and chose to bowl first. The match was reduced to 40 overs per side due to rain and it had a late start at 3 pm IST. The pitch had moisture because of the rain and the pacers and spinners got help because of the moisture in the air.

India started off well as Avesh Khan and Mohammed Siraj were swinging the ball and getting it beat the bat. South Africa started very slowly but got to grips with the pitch as they started playing their strokes. Janneman Malan played a sedate 22 from 42 balls with three fours. Quinton de Kock loves playing against India as he again scored 48 vital runs with five boundaries.  Against the run of play, Shardul Thakur struck twice to remove Malan and Temba Bavuma.

Kuldeep Yadav bowled a dream delivery to dismiss Aiden Markram and shortly after, de Kock was dismissed by Ravi Bishnoi. The score was 110-4 at that stage and South Africa needed some rear-guard action which they got in the form of David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen. Miller went on to score 75 from 63 balls with five fours and three sixes, while Klaasen also made valuable contribution of 74 from 65 balls, with six boundaries and two maximums.

This allowed South Africa to make a formidable total of 249-4 at the end of their 40 overs. In the second innings, the Indian batters struggled to get going and score the runs. Shikhar Dhawan and Shubman Gill were dismissed by Kagiso Rabada and Wayne Parnell and the score was just 8-2 in 5 overs.

Ruturaj Gaikwad played a laborious innings of 19 from 42 balls with just one boundary. Ishaan Kishan tried to hit his way out of trouble but perished to Keshav Maharaj as he was trying to up the scoring rate. At 51-4, India needed a fightback and they found two people in Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson who were willing to grind it out. Shreyas Iyer played a counterattacking knock of 50 from 37 balls with eight fours but eventually got out to Ngidi.

Sanju Samson and Shardul Thakur also fought hard and made a big partnership of 93 runs. Shardul made 33 runs with five fours but got out at a crucial stage. Samson played a valiant knock 85 runs from 63 balls and got India very close but the men in blue lost by just 9 runs in the end.

Twitter was abuzz, let us take a look at the reactions here –