NEW DELHI: Watching a ball going into the air is a common sight in cricket but when the bat goes flying it becomes a rare spectacle in the game. And the fans witnessed this rare occurrence during the first India-South Africa ODI in Johannesburg on Sunday.
The incident took place in the 9th over of the Indian innings when
Shreyas Iyer
lost the control of his bat while attempting a pull shot off
Nandre Burger
.
As Iyer lost his bat, it was headed towards square-leg and the ball ballooned over mid-on. Luckily the top-edge did not go straight to any fielder. It was fortunate that the bat did not make contact with any fielder or even the umpire.
Iyer played a fine knock of 52 off 45 balls as India chased down the easy 117-run target in just 16.4 overs to go 1-0 up in the three-match series. Debutant Sai Sudharsan also scored unbeaten 55 off 43 balls.
Indian pace bowlers
Arshdeep Singh
and
Avesh Khan
sent South Africa crashing to 116 all out at the Wanderers Stadium.
Left-armer Arshdeep took five for 37 and Avesh claimed four for 27 as they rose to the challenge of representing an Indian side which included only three players from the side that played in the World Cup final last month.
Arshdeep had not taken a wicket in three previous one-day internationals while Avesh had taken only three in five appearances.
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