IND vs SA: Debutant Sai Sudharsan joins forces with Shreyas Iyer to propel India to 8-wicket victory

In the absence of key players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Ravindra Jadeja, Team India displayed remarkable prowess in the low-scoring 1st ODI against South Africa. Despite missing star players, India secured a comfortable 8-wicket victory in just 16.4 overs at the New Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg, taking a 1-0 lead in the three-match ODI series.

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Biggest ODI wins for India (in terms of balls remaining):

263 vs SL, Colombo RPS, 2023 *

231 vs KEN, Bloemfontein, 2001

211 vs WI, Thiruvananthapuram, 2018

200 vs SA, Johannesburg, 2023*

India's bowlers put on an impressive performance and restricted South Africa to a mere 116 runs. Talking about their batting, led by debutant Sai Sudharsan, remained unbeaten on 55, and senior batter Shreyas Iyer, contributing 52, guided India to victory.

Indian openers to score 50+ runs on ODI debut

86 - Robin Uthappa vs ENG, 2006

100* - KL Rahul vs ZIM, 2016

55* - Faiz Fazal vs ZIM, 2016

55* - Sai Sudharsan vs SA, 2023*

The win delighted Indian fans, particularly commending the newcomer Sudharsan for his outstanding innings. 

Earlier, South Africa, choosing to bat first, were dismissed for 116. Arshdeep Singh celebrated his maiden five-wicket haul, with support from Avesh Khan's four wickets and Kuldeep Yadav's final wicket.

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In the South African innings, only opener Tony de Zorzi (28) and lower-order batsman Andile Phehlukwayo (33) made noteworthy contributions. Aiden Markram (12) and Tabraiz Shamsi (11*) were the other batsmen to make minor contributions.