MS Dhoni should bat up the order, says Sourav Ganguly

They were under the pump for the better part of the match.

India had three changes to their line-up.

As usual, the Indian batting line-up is a formidable one with opener Rohit Sharma in rollicking form. Bowling: DW Steyn 10-0-49-3, K Rabada 10-1-49-1, M Morkel 10-0-42-2, JP Duminy 9-0-59-0, Imran Tahir 10-1-42-2, F Behardien 1-0-4-0. Virat Kohli is ready in third place. Now Ajinkya Rahane and Shikhar Dhawan is batting in the crease, Dhawan is at 5 runs in 20 balls and Rahane is at 13 runs of 15 balls. Suresh Raina was set up beautifully by Morne Morkel, and the southpaw could not find a way out of Morkel’s short pitched bowling. Back in the side, Rahane too began in style, punching a cover drive off speedster Kagiso Rabada. Total: (all out in 43.4 overs) 225.

A livid Kohli had no option but to leave the ground distraught, paving the way for an under-pressure Dhoni to take control of the innings. In the absence of support, he could not risk any counter attack.

On his personal desires as a batsman post retirement from Test cricket, Dhoni elevated himself to the level of the elder statesman in the current set-up and said that he could not run away from responsibility even if he wanted to. Past the 40 over mark, the skipper came out all guns blazing. “At the end, we only have ourselves to blame, but on the flipside you have to give credit to Mississippi (Dhoni) and the Indian team, they never gave up with the bat and ball”.

Harbhajan chipped in with a couple of wickets as well, and together, they stifled South Africa in the middle overs.

Left-arm spinner Axar Patel claimed career-best figures of 3-39, while paceman Bhuvneshwar Kumar also got three wickets as the hosts fiercely defended a modest total, aided by a few smart catching.

Rohit played all around the park against both pacers and spinners. And the move worked brilliantly! The comeback man Harbhajan Singh picked up 2 important wickets of Quinton de Kock and Farhaan Behardien.

Faf du Plessis remained the top scorer for the visiting side, which suffered their first defeat in the tour so far, with his 51 runs. It wasn’t an easy wicket to bat on but he made it look so easy.

Patel, however, had different plans for the South African team!

Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3-41) cleaned up the tail, taking the final wicket, to give India their first win. That nobody is talking about Ashwin’s unavailability after just two overs of his spell due to side-strain points to a malicious campaign against the Indian skipper.

The loss in the IPL final was followed by the humiliation in Bangladesh in the ODI series and the T20Is against Proteas proved to be yet another no-contest. “We were clear in the last over about what to do, adjusted well in the conditions and it paid off”, said Rabada, who has quickly earned the praise of his teammates after making his T20 debut in November and ODI debut as recent as July when he took a hat-trick against Bangladesh.