Date-stamped : 03 Nov93 - 05:16 South Africa vs India 1st ODI 1st ODI played at Newlands (Cape Town, South Africa) on Monday 7 December 1992. Indian captain M Azharuddin won the toss and elected to bat. Match Adjudicator : Clive Lloyd Umpires : 1. Barry Lambson (RSA) 2. Karl Liebenberg (RSA) 3. Rudi Koetsen (RSA) Note : There was no ro- tation of umpires, Umpires 1 and 2 stood for the entire duration of the match. MOM: Hansi Cronje (RSA) for his bowling performance (5/32). South Africa won by 6 wickets. India 184 all out in 45 overs. South Africa 185 / 4 in 49.3 overs. It was a hot and clear summers day. With a lot rain having fallen recently the outfield was a bit on the slowish side. There was not much grass on, a typical one day wicket. However the ball was coming onto the bat slower therefore the slower bowlers were more succesful. Attendance : 20 000 Capacity : 20 000 MATCH REPORT: India got off to a good start when their opening pair put on 92 for the the first wicket, but the start was too slow and resulted in more pressure being put on the batsman following. This was in direct contrast to the start that they had made when in the 2nd over they took 8 off De Villiers. However, the brakes were ap- plied to the start that they did get off to. as the RSA bowlers (who were beginning to settle) were concentrating on on line and lenght rather then on pace and fury. With the bowlers bowling to their fields, runs were very difficult to come by and only ones and twos were coming, further frustating the bats- man. To demon- strate, in the first 17 overs 6 fours hit but for the next 20 overs no fours were to be hit. It was only in the 37th over that Tendulkar hit a four. The fielding of the South African's was im- maculate even though there was a run out op- purtunity against Ra- man only for Richardson to overrun the stumps after a good return from the boundary over the stumps and a ball going between the wicketkeeper Richardson and Wessels first slip. To make up for those short comings, the South Africans took 3 brilliant running catches. 1. Hudson running in off the boundary to dismiss Amre 2. Kirsten coming in off long on to dismiss More 3. Cronje looking into the sun to dismiss Dev after an attempted hit over the ring of inner fielders. This was the best performance (IMHO) of the South African field- ers and bowlers, It was so good that the only no ball came not from an overstep or wide (so common with the South African bowlers since our return) but for being above shoulder height. With the South African's bowlers not being able to bowl their al- loted 50 overs in 3 1/2 hours it seemed that they would have fewer overs to reach the total, but this did not happen. A sour point must be Kapil Dev's reluctance in taking singles which would have put a few more runs on the board for India. While his reluctance was that since he was a more prolific scorer than Kum- ble, then he should face most of the bowling, however this gamble did not pay off. India's final over thus went like this: .4..WW When the South African's came out to bat, the Indian's looked like they were going to emulate the South African's in their fielding display, but alas except for the run out of Wessels (with the aid of TV - it was so close that I am sure I can put my name between bat and crease and my name would still be longer than the distance between bat and crease) the Indian fielding display lacked discipline and also leadership, with Azharuddin dropping what is a standard training shot - a high up and under - is excusable if he did it once (Wessels) but twice (Rhodes) is unbelievable. Both these catches dropped in the vicinity of the gully area where earlier on in the innings he had made some bril- liant save of what would have been certain fours for Hudson off Dev. The Indian slow bowlers bowled a good line and length for most of the match (Tendulkar and Kumble), but were as Cronje had bowled to his field, they also lacked a little control, when a good over was suddenly spoilt by a loose delivery. With the in- troduction of the slow bowlers the scoring rate was much slower for the South Africans, but the Indians were never able to tight- en the screws. As in the 2nd test, Dev once again warned Kirsten about trying to steal a yard or two on him as he was going to bowl. Dev did warn Kirsten a second time, but this time he was red faced as he realised that Kirsten's bat was well grounded in his crease. Earlier on in the innings Hudson had been particular- ly severe on Dev when facing him in the 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th over he got a four off each of those overs giving Dev figures of 5overs 1 maiden 21 runs and 0 wickets! There was some good run- ning between the wickets between the South Africans for those cheeky singles. HISTORICAL EVENTS 1. This is the first ODI to played in South Africa. 2. First ODI in which Television was used to help the umpires. 3. Raman hit the first boundary in an ODI to played in South Africa. 4. Dev hit the first six in an ODI to played in South Africa. 5. Cronje was the first player to get a wicket in and ODI to played in RSA. 6. Cronje became the second RSA player to get 5 wickets in a ODI. 7. Wessels became the first player to be dismissed by the third umpire with the aid of television in an ODI. With thanks to Peter Rosendorff (bpeter@*usc.edu) Another of Reporter's mammoth efforts :-) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)