In an unfortunate incident, captain Virat Kohli got an injury scare during the first ODI between India and South Africa at the Kingsmead in Durban. During the second ball of the seventh over of South Africa's innings, Kohli's knee got stuck into the dampish outfield while fielding at mid-off. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was bowling his fourth over at that time. He bowled a fuller delivery on off, which Amla drove it through extra cover.
During the chase from mid-off, Kohli gets close to the ball and goes for a slide. His knee got stuck into the ground but he quickly stands up, picks the ball up and throws it back to the keeper. The batsmen ran three but the Indian captain was seen limping as he heads back to his fielding position. The 29-year old Kohli is generally a livewire on the field and is considered as one of the fittest cricketers in the world.
Following the injury, Virat went off the field. Shreyas Iyer replaced him in the field for a while.
After a morale-boosting win in Johannesburg Test, the Indian cricket team is all set to switch to coloured clothing in the limited-overs format against South Africa. Despite the 1-2 loss in the three-match Test series, the visitors showed great skill and character to put up a fight testing conditions. Now, the two teams are back in the field for the six-match series, the first ODI of the series is being played at the Kingsmead in Durban.
Earlier in the day, South Africa skipper Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to bat in the opener of the six-match ODI series against India at Kingsmead on Thursday. With former skipper AB de Villiers being ruled out of the first three matches with a finger injury, the hosts have included Test opener Aiden Markram to bat at the No.4 spot.
The visitors, on the other hand, opted to go with the usual combination of two wrist spinners - Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, alongside the part-time off-spin option of Kedar Jadhav. Ajinkya Rahane also gets a chance in place of Manish Pandey in the playing XI.
Teams:
India: Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (WK), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal.
South Africa: Quinton de Kock (WK), Faf du Plessis (Captain), Hashim Amla, Jean-Paul Duminy, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Chris Morris, Andile Phehlukwayo, Kagiso Rabada, Morne Morkel, Imran Tahir.
