Skipper for the ODI series against South Africa KL Rahul feels that the middle overs was crucial in the first ODI which was played at Boland Park on Wednesday. India lost by 31 runs in the first match of the series out of three. South Africa will be looking to win this ODI series as now they have a crucial lead against team India after defeating them by 2-1 in the Test series. The host captain named Temba Bavuma leads by an example as he scored a massive 110 runs and his partner Van der Dussen scored 129* for which he was also been awarded man of the match. Indian batsmen were not up to the mark and they kept losing wickets in the middle overs. Skipper KL Rahul also thinks middle-order batsmen gave away their wickets at the crucial stage which costs them this game.
“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,” said KL Rahul in the post-match presentation on Star Sports Network.
It was Rahul’s first game as captain of the Indian team and it resulted in a defeat. Shikhar Dhawan was back in the team and was the most runs scorer for India in this game. Former Indian captain Virat Kohli also scored a half-century but it wasn’t enough to take the team towards the victory. Indian team captain KL Rahul thinks that the team will learn from the mistakes and will try to win the remaining games to clinch the series. There are only two games left in this series and the Indian team needs to win both of them if they want to take this series away from the host. The second ODI is scheduled to play on Friday at the same venue (Boland Park) which will be a do-or-die game for India.
