South African captain Temba Bavuma gave credit to the duo of David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen for helping the team post a par score of 249 runs on the board at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow on Thursday.
The Proteas found themselves in a spot of bother at 71-3 (16 overs) and they were further reduced to 110-4 after 22.4 overs when Shikhar Dhawan decided to put the visitors into bat following a delayed start due to rain.
However, Miller continued his good form and he was able to take the attack on the Indian spinners, especially debutant Ravi Bishnoi, to hit the ground running. Klaasen took his time in the early stage but he also continued his love affair of scoring runs against India.
Miller scored 75 while Klaasen scored 74 as the duo added a fine alliance of 139 runs to help the Proteas reach nigh the 250-run mark.
Bavuma believes they were given a good start by Kagiso Rabada and Wayne but they veered off the track in the middle overs when Shreyas Iyer and Sanju Samson decided to counterattack.
Temba Bavuma said in the post-match presentation, “A good fight at the end, obviously Sanju pushed us at the end, but the boys stood firm and took us to the win. There wasn’t much grass on the surface, we lost a couple of wickets in the middle overs, myself and Aiden (Markram), but the boys knuckled down. Miller and Klaasen played positively, stung together a partnership, and took us to a good score. Bowling upfront was good, in the first 15 overs by KG and Parnell. I thought we lost our way in the middle overs and gave away far too many runs, but in the end, the result did go our way and I’m happy with that.”
On the other hand, Klaasen was awarded the Player of the Match for scoring a fine knock. The right-hander admitted that the conditions were really tough to bat.
He said after the game, “Not at all (when asked if the conditions were easy to bat), the ball was moving a lot and was spinning just before I walked out to the middle. But we have worked hard in the nets, I do have a good record against India and looking forward to the rest of the games.”
The second ODI of the series will be played in Ranchi on Sunday.
