DURBAN – AB de Villiers and JP Duminy shared a 131-run fourth wicket partnership to provide the bulk of South Africa’s total of 289 for nine in the first one-day international against India at Kingsmead on Wednesday.
De Villiers hit 76 off 69 balls, while Duminy scored 73 off 89 deliveries.
While they were together South Africa looked on target for a total of more than 300 but both fell to the part-time off-spin of Rohit Sharma instead of cashing in towards thes end of the innings.
In a departure from their normal tactics, South Africa took the batting powerplay after 27 overs and it seemed to pay off as De Villiers and Duminy added 45 runs in five overs and forced India to use some of their better bowlers early. But De Villiers holed out to deep midwicket and Duminy was leg before wicket when he missed an attempted reverse sweep, leaving South Africa without a specialist batsman for the last eight overs.
