Riding on Arshdeep Singh’s fifer and Avesh Khan’s four wickets, India bundled South Africa for 116 runs.

Johannesburg: Arshdeep Singh stated that his County Championship experience with Kent helped him with an ‘extra bit’ of confidence after the India pacer destroyed the South African batting with a match-winning 5/37 in the first ODI on Sunday at the Wanderers. With Avesh Khan (8-3-27-4) in the company, the Indian duo just toyed with the Proteas line-up as the hosts were bundled out for 116 runs, their lowest ODI total at home.

In reply, India rode on fifties from debutant Sai Sudharsan and Shreyas Iyer to romp home in 16.4 overs and eight wickets in hand. “My country stint wasn’t very fruitful, I didn’t get many wickets there, but it helped me understand my game, how I can contain the batters,” Arshdeep said during the post-match press conference.

“I’ve learnt how to recover, how to train, how to maintain my fitness. Playing county helped me big time. It gives you that extra bit of confidence and self-belief. Even in the IPL, when you play with international superstars you believe that you belong to the stage. It becomes easier to blend at this level,” he added.

Arshdeep also revealed that he and Avesh were actually planning on how to ‘restrict the brutal South Africa under 400’. “Axar (Patel), Avesh and I went for dinner last night and were discussing how brutal the Proteas can be when they wear pink jerseys, how they hit sixes,” Arshdeep recalled the conversation.

“We were just thinking about restricting them under 400, but when we saw purchase from the wicket, and a bit of moisture we just kept it simple and results fell in place. We got early wickets. The credit goes to Avesh as well, as he took the pressure off me and got wickets.”

Meanwhile, South Africa sported pink jerseys to raise awareness about breast cancer, something they have done previously too, winning nine of their 11 ODIs in pink jerseys. The most famous knock was by AB de Villiers who smashed a 31-ball hundred (149 not out) against the West Indies wearing the pink jersey in an ODI in 2015. South Africa had scored 439/2 en route a 148-run win at the same venue.

But on Sunday, Arshdeep was the star as he got purchase from the wicket and used the bowling crease to great effect to prove that he can be an asset in the ODIs too. “Personally, I will rate this very highly. In ODIs, I didn’t have any wicket and to get a fifer directly, I’m really grateful,” he said.

With PTI Inputs