PAARL: Indian captain K.L. Rahul praised his group of young players after Sanju Samson hit a maiden international century and set up a Samson struck 108 from 114 balls in an Indian total of 296 for eight on a slow wicket at Boland Park.

South African captain Aiden Markram’s decision to send India in to bat on a slow pitch on a hot afternoon backfired as the hosts were bowled out for 218 in reply.

India arrived in South Africa without most of the players who took the country to the World Cup final last month. But they won two of the three matches in convincing fashion.

“It was good to see what everyone did, they showed fight through of the series,” Rahul said. “A few of them were nervous to start off, so I just let them be to get used to international cricket and the pressure.

“I am very happy for Sanju, he has been a great performer in the IPL [Indian Premier League] and unfortunately has not had enough chances near the top of the order for various reasons. There are so many world-class players in India that are settled at the top of the order.”

Rahul, who featured in the World Cup final loss on home soil against Australia last month, said it is good to be able to play with a smile again.

“We had a disappointing result in the World Cup final and I had some time off. It was nice to get back on the cricket field and to be part of this group, putting up good performances.

“My message [to the players] is always to enjoy the game and each situation. Give your best and don’t worry so much about the result. It is a young group. They have played a lot of cricket but not at international level.”

Left-arm opening bowler Arshd­eep Singh rose to the challenge spectacularly.

He took 10 wickets in the series, including four for 30 on Thursday, and was named player of the series.

“The IPL has been a very good platform for us youngsters, there isn’t a big gap between IPL and international cricket,” Singh said.

“You understand the mindset of international cricketers and it helps. We are all loving the chances we’ve got. We’d love to give our all in the future and do well.”

South Africa were well-placed wh­en Tony de Zorzi (87) and Mark­ram (36) put on 65 for the third wicket to take the total to 141 in the 26th over.

But the innings fell away when Markram gloved an attempted reverse sweep off Washington Sundar to wicketkeeper Rahul and De Zorzi was leg before wicket to Arshdeep 20 runs later.

Former international players in the commentary box were surprised at Markram’s decision to bowl first but Markram said he didn’t believe it influenced the result.

“We were up for it, it was a series decider at a great venue with a pretty full house (of spectators),” Markram said. “Our skills just let us down. We were good in small patches but could not stretch those out long enough to get momentum on our side. I don’t think the surface changed much through the day and I thought 290 was chaseable.”

Samson summed up the conditions well, batting patiently as stroke-making became challenging when the two white balls lost their hardness.

Samson and Tilak Varma (52) took 88 balls to post a fifty partnership for the fourth wicket but they picked up the pace and eventually added 116 off 136 balls.

Samson took 66 balls to pass 50 and a further 54 deliveries to reach his maiden international hundred with six fours and three sixes.

“We had to take a bit of extra time to see how the pitch plays and how the bowler is trying to get you out,” Samson said. “Batting higher up gave me those extra 20 balls to assess that. I focussed on my process, there is a lot of hard work that has been done on that recently.”

The foundation laid by Samson and Varma enabled India’s lower order batsmen to score rapidly towards the end of the innings, with 51 runs scored off the last five overs.

SCOREBOAR

INDIA:

R. Patidar b Burger 22

S. Sudharsan lbw Hendricks 10

S. Samson c R. Hendricks b Williams 108

K.L. Rahul c Klaasen b Mulder 21

T. Varma c Mulder b Maharaj 52

R. Singh c Hendricks b Burger 38

A. Patel c Mulder b B. Hendricks 1

W. Sundar c Markram b B. Hendricks 14

A. Singh not out 7

A. Khan not out 1

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-5, NB-1, W-15) 22

TOTAL (for eight wickets, 50 overs) 296

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-34 (Patidar), 2-49 (Sudharsan), 3-101 (Rahul), 4-217 (Varma), 5-246 (Samson), 6-255 (Patel), 7-277 (Sundar), 8-293 (R. Singh)

DID NOT BAT: M. Kumar

BOWLING: Burger 9-0-64-2 (2w), Williams 10-0-71-1 (4w, 1nb), B. Hendricks 9-0-63-3 (2w), Mulder 7-0-36-1 (2w), Maharaj 10-2-37-1, Markram 5-0-19-0

SOUTH AFRICA:

R. Hendricks c Rahul b A. Singh 19

T. de Zorzi lbw A. Singh 81

R. van der Dussen b Patel 2

A. Markram c Rahul b Sundar 36

H. Klaasen c Sudharsan b Khan 21

D. Miller c Rahul b Kumar 10

W. Mulder c Rahul b Sundar 1

K. Maharaj c R. Singh b A. Singh 14

B. Hendricks c Samson b Khan 18

L. Williams lbw A. Singh 2

N. Burger not out 1

EXTRAS (LB-1, NB-2, W-11) 13

TOTAL (all out, 45.5 overs) 218

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-59 (R. Hendricks), 2-76 (van der Dussen), 3-141 (Markram), 4-161 (de Zorzi), 5-174 (Klaasen), 6-177 (Mulder), 7-192 (Miller), 8-210 (Maharaj), 9-216 (Williams)

BOWLING: Kumar 9-0-56-1 (2w, 2nb), A. Singh 9-1-30-4 (5w), Khan 7.5-0-45-2 (2w), Sundar 10-0-38-2, Patel 10-0-48-1 (1w)

RESULT: India won by 78 runs.

PLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Sanju Samson

PLAYER-OF-THE-SERIES: Arshdeep Singh

SERIES: India won the three match series 2-1.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2023