Indian skipper KL Rahul won the toss and decided to bat first against South Africa in the second ODI at Boland Park, in Paarl. Rahul made no changes to the squad that had lost to the Proteas in the first ODI by 31 runs on January 19.
One change for the hosts
South African team, on the other hand, made one change to their squad. 31-year-old pacer Sisanda Magala was brought in the squad and Marco Jansen was dropped.
“Marco had a big workload in the Test series, and felt he was a bit flat in the first game, we got full confidence in Magala and that's the reason behind the change,” Temba Bavuma said at the coin toss.
Skipper Rahul would have been desperate to forget the painful 2-1 Test series defeat against South Africa and start the ODI series on a positive note but his hopes were shattered after Indian team suffered a 31-run defeat In the first match of the series.
Batting first, the hosts scored a formidable total of 296/4 in the first game. Skipper Bavuma (110 runs off 143 balls) and Russie van der Dussen (129 not out off 96 balls) played brilliantly to put Indian bowling unit under pressure.
Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah had picked up two wickets.
In reply, India got a good start as opener Shikhar Dhawan (79 runs off 84 balls) and Virat Kohli (51 off 63 balls) took India to a comfortable position. But after Kohli’s dismissal, a middle-order collapse saw team India lose five wickets within a span of just 62 runs.
All-rounder Shardul Thakur scored a half century (50 off 43 balls) but that was not enough as India managed to 265 for 8 wickets in 50 overs.
Indian playing XI:
KL Rahul (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, R Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal
South African playing XI:
Quinton de Kock (wk), Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma (captain), Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Andile Phehlulwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Sisanda Magala, Lungi Ngidi, Tabraiz Shamsi
