India vs South Africa 2015, 1st Twenty20: Player Ratings

Rohit did what he could

Rohit Sharma's classy century was overshadowed by JP Duminy's match-winning knock as South Africa won the T20 series opener by seven wickets at the HPCA Cricket Ground, Dharamsala on Friday.

The likes of AB de Villiers and Farhaan Berhardien also played crucial knocks in the chase for the visitors while Kyle Abbott had a crucial role in restricting India to a score of below 200 picking up Rohit and Virat Kohli in the same over.

For India, Ravichandran Ashwin bowled outstandingly while Axar Patel was hammered by Duminy towards the end.

So how do the individual performances of players from both teams stack up on a scale of 1 to 10, let's take a look at it.

India

Rohit Sharma - 9/10

Rohit Sharma survived a close LBW appeal when he was yet to open his account but rode on the luck superbly to become only the second Indian to score a century in all three formats of the game. The knock might have ended up in a losing cause, but it was a classy innings that deserves full credit.

Shikhar Dhawan - 7/10

Coming into the match on the back of an impressive run of form, India would have hoped Dhawan would provide them with the early fireworks. He looked in good touch too before he ran himself out  after wrongfully deciding to attempt a second run after a misfield.

Virat Kohli - 8/10

Looked like a man determined to do the talking with the bat the moment he came in to bat. He didn't allow the pressure to build following the dismissal of Dhawan by rotating the strike wonderfully. He  cleared the ropes a few times as well and forged a 138-run partnership with Rohit – India's highest in T20I history.

Suresh Raina - 7/10

Did his best in the limited time he was out in the middle as he hit two sixes before he was caught in the deep as he further pushed to accelerate the scoring.

MS Dhoni - 7/10

Struggled to put away the balls early on but made up for it towards the end with a last-ball six that helped India near the 200-run mark.

Amabti Rayudu - 

Couldn't do much as he sacrificed his wicket at an attempt to give the strike to his skipper but was run-out at the non-striker's end.

Ravichandran Ashwin - 8.5/10

The only Indian bowler who looked like threatening the South Africans. Ashwin deceived the dangerous looking De Villiers with a slower one through the air and continued to trouble the visiting batsmen with his purchase off the wicket.

Axar Patel - 6/10

Started off well bowling in tandem with Ashwin, but lost his way horribly towards the end as Duminy tore into him smashing him for 21 runs in a decisive over which turned the match in the favour of the visiting side. Seemed to crumble under pressure as he had no answers to the onslaught and kept bowling at the wrong areas to Duminy.

Mohit Sharma - 5.5/10

The Haryana medium pacer has the backing of MS Dhoni, but it remains to be seen whether he is persisted with after a woeful performance on Friday night. He looked totally out of sorts as he banged the ball in short too many times and was an easy run-scoring opportunity for the South African batsmen.

Sreenath Aravind - 6/10

The 31-year-old finally made his long-awaited debut for the national team on Friday, but it was a day to forget for Aravind as gave away runs at more than 11 runs an over. He did pick up the wicket of the South African skipper, but it turned out to be the only good contribution he could muster in the match.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar - 7/10

Could consider himself unlucky as he should have got the crucial wicket of JP Duminy when the South Africans were still a long away off from victory. But the usually economical Bhuvneshwar was carved for runs early on as well as towards the ends as he failed to deliver to that inswinging yorkers that the Indian fans were hoping for.