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Ongoing India's tour of South Africa, which was touted to be one of the most successful ones for the country in the history of the game, is actually turning out to be a nightmare. It all started with a historic 1st Test win in Centurion but since then, things have gone from bad to worse. After losing the red-ball series 1-2, the disappointment continued in ODI series as well.
Once again, it was a brilliant start on Wednesday when Jasprit Bumrah and Ravichandran Ashwin took a few early wickets putting Men in Blue on top. However, the duo of Temba Bavuma and Rassie van der Dussen, who took their side over the line in Cape Town, once again piled on the misery for India.
Both the players smashed brilliant centuries to guide South Africa to 296/4 in 50 overs on a wicket which was not so easy to bat. The Jai and Veeru of rainbow nation wreaking havoc proved out to be too much for KL Rahul and Co. on the day in Paarl.
Also Watch: Virat Kohli throws the ball in anger towards Temba Bavuma
Although India were once in a solid position with Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli playing some gorgeous shots. However, unlike the set batsmen of South Africa, the Indian experienced duo could not convert their fifties to a big score as they were dismissed one after the other.
Their dismissal led to another batting collapse for India as they lost 7 wickets for 76 runs, completely losing their way in the run-chase. While some fans admitted that 'seh lenge thoda', there were few who were just pondering 'har par har lamha main kaise sehta hu'.
ALSO WATCH: Temba Bavuma's reaction after taking catch of Virat Kohli
But amid all the disappointment, there was one major positive for Team India - Lord Shardul's batting. The all-rounder played a gritty 43-ball 50-run knock and stayed unbeaten till the end, setting up an example for other lower-order batsmen how runs needed to be scored on the slow and sluggish track.
The netizens did not miss the opportunity to roll out some hilarious memes on Shardul's batting and India's middle-order collapse.
While some people were unhappy to see Rahul Dravid sad after the defeat, one of the fans was happy that India lost the first match, meaning that they will go on to win the series (since this is exactly what happened in Test series).
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While there was a meme which reflected that no one will be able to blame Kohli for the loss since he is not the captain anymore and he also scored a half-century, one of the tweets just stated a sad fact that India did not really celebrate the one-year anniversary of Gabba heroics in perfect fashion.
The Men in Blue, led by KL Rahul, would now be keen to bounce back and level the series when two sides clash again for 2nd ODI on Jan 21 at the same venue.