"I knew that I had to go for my sweeps and reverse-sweeps early on" - Rassie van der Dussen after match-winning 129 vs India
Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma scored individual centuries as South Africa drowned India in the first ODI at the Boland Park in Paarl.
Riding on a record-breaking 204-run stand between Bavuma (110) and Dussen (129*), the Proteas posted 296 runs. This proved to be enough to defeat the Men in Blue, who fell short by 31 runs.
Rassie van der Dussen has had an astonishing start to his ODI career 👏
#SAvIND https://t.co/kgEtB7iUNV
The South African batters tacked India's spinners exceedingly well. They dished out paddle and reverse sweeps, scoring 106 runs off Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal's 20 overs and giving away the wicket of Quinton de Kock.
When asked about his ploy against the spinners at the post-match presentation ceremony, Rassie van der Dussen said:
"The key for me was to just up the intensity. I knew that I had to go for my sweeps and reverse-sweeps early on and put pressure on the spinners. It was important to just show the intent from the start and we got a partnership going on a good batting wicket. We got the momentum and put up a good score."
Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen, today, registered the third-highest partnership for the 4th wicket for South Africa in ODIs 🙌
#India #SouthAfrica #SAvIND https://t.co/tXFHDJxnRD
Out of the 129 runs Rassie scored, 71 of those came off the leg side as he perfected the sweeps against the Indian spinners. After a couple of low scores, Rassie van der Dussen was under the pump but responded well to lead South Africa to an emphatic win. He added:
"Coming in today, I was under a bit of pressure. I had to stand up and play. As a unit, we were quite confident coming into this match."
The 32-year-old has had a remarkable ODI career so far, scoring 1178 runs at 73.62, including two centuries and nine fifties.
"We could have done better in the last ten overs as far as our bowling is concerned' - Rassie van der Dussen
While South Africa will look to build on this victory, they will look to improve their death bowling ahead of the next tie. Speaking about the same, Rassie van der Dussen said:
"We've played a bit of cricket here and we felt that 285+ would put us in a good position. When Shikhar and Virat were in there, they were in the game. We had to get them out and the new batters were going to find it difficult to find their feet."
He added:
"Maybe we could have done better in the last ten overs as far as our bowling is concerned but that's something we can work on going forward."
Despite having India's tail exposed at 203/7, South Africa couldn't bowl out the visitors and gave away 62 runs in the final 10 overs.
The second ODI of the series is scheduled to take place on January 21 (Friday) at Boland Park in Paarl.