Twenty eight overs into India's chase of 297 in the first ODI in Paarl, it looked like Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli were trying to tell Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen that they are the real masters of constructing an ODI innings. At the end of the day, Bavuma and van der Dussen's 204-run partnership trumped the pros as South Africa lodged a convincing 31-run win to start the three-match ODI series strongly on Wednesday.
Over the past two weeks, the wheels seem to be coming off for the Indian team. Wednesday was an example of lack of clarity in the Indian dressing room. Barring Dhawan (79 off 84) and Kohli's (51 off 63) 92-run partnership and the opening spell by Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, South Africa put the competition beyond India. Perhaps, the middle-order has got too used to Kohli, Dhawan and Rohit Sharma killing games. Even as they fell short of their respective centuries, they had set the game up. It's just that the undercooked middle-order was exposed for too long.
