RSA VS IND - 1st ODI, India tour of South Africa, 2021-22

That's a wrap to our coverage of this ODI. Can India level the series? Or will South Africa under a shrewd Bavuma seal it with a game to go? Join us on Friday - same venue, same time - for the second game. Until then, it's goodbye...

Rassie van der Dussen, Player of the Match: The key for me was to keep the intensity and up the intensity. I went in and I knew I had to go to my sweeps and reverse-sweeps and put the pressure back on their spinners. It was important to show intent from the start. We got some momentum and put on a good score. Coming in today, we were in a bit of pressure. You need to stand up as a batter, two high-pressure chases in the Test, we were confident as a group coming into this match. We knew we'd be in a good position if we could post 280+. When Shikhar and Virat were there, they were putting us under a bit of pressure. As soon as we got those two wickets, a new batter needs time to find his feet. Not the ideal last 10 overs, hopefully we can be more clinical in the future. We've been on a long journey with this team. We've put a lot of hard work in and had a lot of good chats. I think it's coming through.

Temba Bavuma: We played close to a perfect game, that's quite hard in 50-over cricket. We can take a lot of confidence. I struggled throughout the innings, Rassie seemed like batting on another wicket. That partnership was the decider. I tried to partner him as much as I could. Another good debut for him (Jansen), we feel he can take wickets with the new ball. He's growing from strength to strength and it's nice to see. Aiden is always an option with the ball, especially with the new ball. He's been doing a fantastic job. Andile was good, he understood the situation. He knew what he needed to do. He's a big player within the team. It's good to see him take charge. Spinners have been great. Shamsi - we are trying to use him differently, using him at the death and he's doing it well. Spinners have been good. Nice to have Quinny back, nice to see him smile. He's a big player for me, he's a big player for the team, his energy and his experience helps us a lot.

KL Rahul: It was a nice game. There's so much to learn. We started off really well, we couldn't get wickets in the middle. We'll look to see how we get wickets in the middle overs and stop the opposition. The middle-order couldn't get going. We were on par for the first 20-25 overs of the game. I thought we would chase it down easily but SA bowled really well and got crucial wickets. I didn't bat after the 20th over, I don't know if it changed drastically. Virat and Shikhar told that it was a good wicket to bat on, you just had to spend some time in the middle, unfortunately we couldn't get the partnership going. They did really well, they put pressure on the bowlers and we couldn't get those wickets in the middle. 290+ was 20 runs extra, but we just needed more partnerships in the middle. Every game is important for us, we all want to go out there and give our best performances. We haven't played one-day cricket for a while, we have the WC in mind and we want to get the best XI on the park. We'll make mistakes but we'll learn from them.

Subhojit: The extra 30-40 runs given away by India are coming back to haunt now. And, going from 138/1 to 188/6 conveys the sad state of the Indian middle order

Priyanshu Poddar: Everyone amongst the wickets for SA except the guy on debut and unfortunately for him, someone like a Miller dropped a sitter. That said, SA seemed down & out at one stage when Dhawan & Kohli were batting and to turn things around from there and the way they did has been phenomenal.

18:30 Local Time, 16:30 GMT, 22:00 IST: The players from both teams exchange handshakes as South Africa go 1-0 up in the 3-match series. Contrasting batting approaches. South Africa got off to a slow start, were reduced to 68/3 in the 18th over and then fought back to post 296 on the board - thanks to the double-century partnership between Bavuma and van der Dussen. India, on the other hand, got off to a steady start but lost their momentum in the second half of their innings. Chasing 297, India lost Rahul cheaply but India were coasting along nicely with Dhawan and Kohli at the crease. The senior batters were milking the SA bowlers and the asking-rate was always in the vicinity of 6 RPO. However, unlike Bavuma and RVD, neither of the Indian batters converted their starts. Dhawan was cleaned up by Maharaj and Kohli fell to Shamsi playing a sweep. After losing both the set batters within a span of 18 deliveries, the Proteas tightened the screws and the visitors couldn't stage a comeback. From 138/1, India slipped 214/8 and Thakur's late blitz only reduced the margin of defeat. Stay tuned for the presentations...

Ngidi to Thakur, 1 run, maiden ODI fifty for Shardul Thakur! 139kph, low full toss outside off, Thakur chips it over extra cover. Bumrah gives a hug to Thakur. South Africa win by 31 runs

Ngidi to Bumrah, 1 run, low full toss outside off, Bumrah guides it towards point

Ngidi to Thakur, 1 run, 141kph, he can't get underneath it. Very full and Thakur jams the drive to long-off

Ngidi to Bumrah, 1 run, 136kph, wide yorker, Bumrah reaches out and squeezes to deep backward point

Ngidi to Bumrah, wide, tries to repeat it and ends up spilling it outside the tramline

Ngidi to Bumrah, no run, 136kph, yorker outside off, Bumrah can't put bat on ball

Ngidi to Thakur, 1 run, very full and outside off, Thakur squeezes it to sweeper cover

Shamsi to Bumrah, no run, Bumrah has a smile on his face after dead-batting off the back foot

Shamsi to Thakur, 1 run, 92kph, quicker one, Thakur miscues the sweep to mid-wicket

Shamsi to Bumrah, 1 run, 81kph, slow and full, flicked over mid-wicket

Shamsi to Thakur, 1 run, spinning down leg from a length, Thakur hurriedly pulls to short fine leg's right, just a single

Shamsi to Bumrah, 1 run, gets down to slog and inside-halves to deep mid-wicket

Shamsi to Thakur, 1 run, 82kph, sharp in-turn, Thakur goes back to punch and is cramped for room. Gets an inside edge to mid-wicket

Equation: 43 runs | 12 balls.

Ngidi to Thakur, 1 run, 139kph, pitched up, Thakur drills to sweeper cover and keeps the strike