Innings South Africa 278 for 7 (Markram 79, Hendricks 74, Siraj 3-38) v India
The total aside, of particular importance was the statement Hendricks made, on his return to the side after he was left out following four successive T20I half-centuries on South Africa’s tour to England in August. Hendricks lost his place to returning captain Temba Bavuma for the T20I matches against India and could not regain it even after Bavuma recorded two ducks and a three. Hendricks was not selected for the first ODI but found his way into the XI after Bavuma (Tabraiz Shamsi, too) was ruled out of the second ODI with a mild infection. Despite not playing an ODI in almost a year – when he was part of the XI that took part in a washed-out match in November 2021 – fortunately for South Africa, he remains in excellent touch.
On a slow, dry surface, South Africa started tentatively and lost both openers in the powerplay. In the third over, Quinton de Kock reached for a wide Siraj delivery but did not move across to meet it and chopped the ball onto his stumps. Janneman Malan was in better touch and punched a pair of short balls from Siraj and Avesh over the offside but did not last much longer. Shahbaz earned his first international wicket when he beat Malan’s outside edge with a slower delivery that struck him on the back-pad.
Markram’s arrival saw Kuldeep Yadav brought on, in the hope that the wristspinner would remove South Africa’s No. 4 for the fourth time in six matches. He beat Markram with drift and flight and appealed for lbw off the eighth ball he bowled to him. Markram, on 13, was given not out but Kuldeep wanted the review. Replays showed the ball was clipping legstump but Markram survived on umpire’s call. Kuldeep was taken off after that over, in what appeared to have been a tactical mis-step from the captain Shikhar Dhawan. Markram doubled his score off the next 12 balls he faced.
By that stage, Markram’s score had almost caught up to Hendricks’ and their stand had grown to fifty off 60 balls. Hendricks looked comfortable, especially against the spinners and used his wrists and feet well. South Africa were 91 for 2 after 20 overs and Hendricks and Markam were reasonably untroubled. They took on Shardul Thakur, whose first three overs cost 23 runs. Hendricks’ fifty came off 58 balls, after which he struck the first six of the innings when he hit Kuldeep over wide long-on, but Markram almost didn’t join him to the milestone. He was on 49 when he was given out caught behind to Avesh, when he missed a pull. Markram reviewed immediately and Ultra Edge he had not made contact with the ball. He went on to reach fifty off 64 balls.
The pair looked set to take South Africa over 300 but Hendricks pulled Siraj to Shahbaz at deep mid-wicket on 74, which brought in-form Heinrich Klaasen to join Markram. He wasted no time breaching the boundary, when he flicked Washington Sundar (1 for 60) for four, heaved Shahbaz over long-on, sliced Avesh through mid-wicket and launched Kuldeep over long-off. Klaasen raced to 30 off 26 balls but then hit a Kuldeep googly straight up for Siraj to take, running in from long-on. Markram was out two balls later when he chipped Washington straight to Dhawan at extra cover to give David Miller nearly 13 overs to marshal the lower order.
Miller hit one four off Kuldeep but the rest of the Indian attack proved difficult to get away. Washington was particularly effective as he held his length back a touch and bowled a little quicker. South Africa scored 31 runs between the 40th and 45th over, with only one boundary, and were impatient to get going. Wayne Parnell tried to hit a Thakur slower ball over long-off but was too early through the stroke and sent it straight to Shreyas Iyer on the boundary. The only other time South Africa found the rope before the penultimate over was when Siraj shied at the non-striker’s stumps in his ninth over and missed. With no back-up, the ball went to the boundary for four overthrows despite protests from the Indian fielders that it should have been dead.
With eight balls remaining in the innings, Miller sent Thakur for back-to-back boundaries, first over his head and to deep square leg. He was not on strike for most of the final over, in which Siraj bowled Keshav Maharaj, who battled to get the ball away throughout his stay at the crease. Siraj finished with the best innings figures of 3 for 38, his second three-for in ODI cricket.
Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo’s South Africa correspondent