An outstanding bowling effort from the Indian pacers and a fine performance with the bat helped India to thrash South Africa by 8 wickets in the first ODI match at the Wanderers. Men in Blue lead the three-match series 1-0 after a dominating win. All is not lost yet for the Proteas as there are still a couple of games to go and the hosts will look to bounce back strong in the 2nd ODI, which will be played on December 19, Tuesday.

Batting first, the Proteas had a dreadful start as Arshdeep Singh rocked them with a double strike in the second over. Reeza Hendricks departed for a duck after playing Arshdeep onto the stumps while Rassie van der Dussen was trapped LBW for a golden duck. Tony de Zorzi (28) and Aiden Markram did offer some resistance before Arshdeep scalped Zorzi as his third wicket.

The home crowd expected something big from their captain Markram and power-hitter Henrich Klaasen but Arshdeep bowled an absolute beauty to clean up Klaasen (6). Then it was Avesh Khan who ran through the South African middle order and took wickets at ease. Andile Phehlukwayo’s fighting knock of 33 helped the Proteas to reach a decent 116. Arshdeep starred with his first five-wicket haul in the ODIs while Avesh bagged four.

India’s chase got off to a steady start as Ruturaj Gaikwad and Sai Sudharsan added 23 runs in 3 overs. But Wiaan Mulder gave the Proteas an early breakthrough by dismissing Gaikwad for 5. However, Sudharsan and Shreyas Iyer batted brilliantly to take the game away from South Africa. Debutant Sudharsan (55*) played beautifully to hit his maiden half-century while Iyer departed for 52. Both added 88 runs for the second wicket and took India home.