Shikhar Dhawan stars as India open Champions trophy with victory over South Africa

Cardiff: India, the reigning 50-over world champions and the No.1-ranked team, lived up to their reputation as they won the opening match of the Champions Trophy by 26 runs against South Africa at Sophia Gardens here on Thursday.

Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan showed the way with a sparkling maiden One Day International century (114 off 94 balls with 12 boundaries and a six) to post an impressive total of 331 for seven, before the Proteas were restricted to 305 all out in reply.

After a stubborn 124-run partnership between skipper A.B. De Villiers (70) and Robin Peterson (68), South Africa surrendered meekly.

Ravindra Jadeja played a pivotal role in the victory, producing the run out that ended the De Villiers-Peterson partnership and taking the catch to remove De Villiers, as well as bagging two wickets. He also cracked an unbeaten 47 to take India past the 300-run mark.

Chasing the huge total, South Africa needed a good start, but they lost both openers early. The first to go was Colin Ingram on six, when Bhuvneshwar Kumar made him edge to second slip and the agile Suresh Raina took a low catch.

Umesh Yadav then struck by forcing Hashim Amla edge to wicketkeeper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for 22.

De Viliers and Peterson kept South Africa in the game before Jadeja shattered their fightback, when Peterson failed to beat his throw to Dhoni from midwicket.

Jadeja also went on to trap J.P. Duminy leg before for 14. De Villiers also fell, charging at a Yadav delivery and top edging to Jadeja at square leg.

With five of their top order batsmen back in the pavilion and still needing 148 in 18 overs, the Proteas buckled under the pressure. Next man David Miller was run out without even facing a ball and, after a brief recovery, Faf du Plessis, Rory Kleinveldt and Lonwabo Tsotsobe fell in quick succession.

No. 8 Ryan McLaren hit an unbeaten 71 off 61 balls to take the match into the final over, but South Africa were well beaten.

Earlier Dhawan, playing in only the sixth ODI of his career, batted with authority from the start. He grew in confidence with every ball and put on a 127-run opening stand with Rohit Sharma, who also played brilliantly to score 65.

Dhawan also put on 83 runs off 13 overs for the second wicket with Virat Kohli (31).

South Africa’s reputed bowling attack was handicapped by the absence of their strike bowler Dale Steyn, who is still to recover from a side strain, and received a further blow when pacer Morne Morkel had to leave the field injured after bowling 6.5 overs.

Despite the setbacks, medium pacer McLaren rose to the challenge and picked up three wickets, including the prized scalp of the in-form Dinesh Karthik for 14 and Suresh Raina for nine.

From a commanding 210 for one, India slipped to 260 for five in 41.4 overs before Jadeja added 31 with Mahendra Singh Dhoni and 32 with Ravichandran Ashwin.

Sharma opened out by playing a delectable push off the front foot off Tsotsobe to the boundary in the fourth over. He kept scoring more boundaries than Dhawan and was especially severe on Kleinveldt. The first ten overs produced 53 runs before the pair accelerated the run rate and India went past the 100 mark in 15.4 overs.

De Villiers looked a worried man as he had won the toss and put India in to bat.

The first six of the match from Sharma over the covers off Tsotsobe revealed that the ball was coming on to the bat nicely, making stroke play easy. When Dhawan also started to pick the gaps and even hit a six by stepping out to Tsotsobe, India looked set for a huge total.

McLaren finally made the breakthrough, forcing Sharma to pull into the hands of Peterson at deep square leg.

Though Tsotsobe wavered in his length, he picked up Kohli by forcing him to pull to Amla on the deep midwicket boundary.

Dhawan, who reached his century in 80 balls, added another 14 before falling to Duminy, sweeping to square leg where substitute fielder Aaron Phasgiso took the catch.