World Cup 2019, India vs South Africa: Best Captaincy Move of the Day

India started their ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 campaign on a winning note against the struggling South African team. India dominated in most parts of the game as they won it with six wickets in hand and fifteen balls to spare. Faf du Plessis won the all-important toss and choose to bat first as his side hadn’t won while chasing in this World Cup.

India’s opening bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah were right on the money as they troubled the South African in the first couple of overs. Bumrah got the wicket of Hashim Amla and was constantly troubling Quinton de Kock as he was beating his outside edge. Initially, Kohli had only two slips in place for de Kock but once he saw that de Kock had no idea against Bumrah he bought himself at the third slip. That turned out to be the best captaincy move of the day, as later in the over de Kock nicked one straight to Kohli. It was a really important wicket because he has a great record against India.

After the loss of the openers, Faf and Rassie van der Dussen put up a fifty run partnership but once the wrist spinners were introduced, they started to spin a web against the African batsmen. Chahal picked up four wickets whereas Kuldeep picked up a single wicket in the middle overs as South Africa were reduced to 158-7. Chris Morris and Kagiso Rabada played well for a 66 run partnership which helped the Proteas to reach a total of 227-8.

Chasing 228, India lost Shikhar Dhawan and Kohli fairly early as India were 54-2. But Rohit Sharma held the innings together and scored a really good century which helped India win the game. He remained unbeaten on 122 off 144 balls. There were some decent contributions from KL Rahul and MS Dhoni.

India had a really good game as all their bowlers took wickets and one of the top three scored a century. It was a perfect result for them. On the other hand, South Africa are in deep trouble after losing three out of their three games. They will have to win all their remaining games if they want to place a strong contention for the semis.

After this match, India will look to carry this momentum into their next game against Australia whereas, the South Africans will have to turn things around quickly in their next game against West Indies in order to register their first win of the tournament.

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