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India's quick bowling pair of Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan wreaked havoc on the hapless Proteas in the opening ODI at the Wanderers in Johannesburg on Sunday, handing them one of their worst records on home soil.
Hunting in pairs to devastating consequences, Arshdeep and Avesh breathed fire, skittling out the Proteas for just 116. It turned out to be South Africa's lowest total in ODIs on home soil. Their previous lowest was also against India, 118 at Centurion in 2018. With the surface offering a lot of purchase for the quick bowlers, Arshdeep literally had the ball on a string as he claimed his maiden five-for in the 50-over format. Coming in first change, Avesh, too, bowled with great pace and fire, registering impressive figures of 4/27 in 8 overs. Both pacers combined to claim nine wickets between them, which was the most by Indian pacers against South Africa in an ODI innings. The previous best hunting by the Indian quick bowlers in his format was eight wickets at Mohali in 1993 and then again at Centurion in 2013. Through his sensational bowling effort, Arshdeep, who copped a lot of flak over his inconsistent showings in limited-overs formats coming into this game, became the first Indian pacer to claim a five-for against South Africa in ODIs. Before him, three Indian bowlers had registered figures of five or more wickets in an ODI against the Proteas. However, they were all spinners. Sunil Joshi registered sensational figures of 5/6 against the Proteas in 1999, leggie Yuzvendra Chahal picked up 5/22 in 2018 and Ravindra Jadeja claimed 5/33 earlier this year. After winning the toss, South Africa skipper Aiden Markram surprisingly opted to bat first. However, the decision proved costly as the Indian pacers, making first use of a fresh and nippy surface, inflicted telling blows on the hosts in the initial overs. With half their side back in the dressing room in no time, the Proteas could never recover from the early blows and were eventually worked over for just 116. The match-turning moment came in the second of the South African innings as Arshdeep, with his nippy left-arm pace, prized out Reeza Hendricks and Rassie van der Dussen in back-to-back balls. In reply, it took India only 16.3 overs to chase down the target. Debutant southpaw Sai Sudharsan's (55*) and Shreyas Iyer's (52) explosive knocks saw the visitors go 1-0 up in the series with a facile eight-wicket victory. (ANI)
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