IND vs SA: Shardul Thakur cleans up Temba Bavuma with a brilliant delivery

South Africa's skipper Temba Bavuma's poor form with the bat continued as he was cleaned up by a ripper of a delivery from Indian all-rounder Shardul Thakur. The Proteas skipper looked scratchy from the start as his misery was ended by Thakur after he scored eight runs. 

Meanwhile, South Africa has bounced back well from the early jolts and posted a challenging total for the Men in Blue on a slowish pitch of Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow. 

Bavuma had no answers to Shardul's peach of a delivery

Talking about the ball, it was the last delivery of the 15th over. Shardul bowled a delivery outside the off-stump line, but the ball seamed viciously after pitching and hit the timber. Bavuma showed no foot movement as he was cleaned up by Thakur who looked ecstatic after grabbing the wicket of the Proteas skipper. Thakur also scalped South Africa opener Janneman Malan to break the crucial opening stand.

Lord shardul 🙏#shardulthakur #INDvsSa pic.twitter.com/5LDUG6RiuZ

— Akash♛ (@axcash_) October 6, 2022

As mentioned earlier, Bavuma has not been able to get going with the bat recently. Even in the T20I series against India, the right-handed batter bagged two ducks in the first two encounters, while he managed to score just three runs in the third match. 

Talking about Africa's innings in the first ODI, some decent contributions from senior batters Quinton de Kock, David Miller, and Heinrich Klaasen meant that the visiting team posted a decent total of 249 runs in their allotted 40 overs. 

The home team under the leadership of Shikhar Dhawan will want to chase down the total and go one up in the series. Apart from Dhawan, batters Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill and Sanju Samson will want to have a good outing with the bat and give some hefty contributions. Africa on the other hand will need to bowl out of their skins to defend the total and gain a lead in the three-match ODI series.