Lucknow

Sanju Samson displayed valiant effort in his unbeaten knock of 86 while Shreyas Iyer hit a counter-attacking fifty and Shardul Thakur produced a stunning late cameo in the first ODI against South Africa on Thursday.

But the trio's splendid efforts went in vain as India lost to South Africa by nine runs in the series opener.

With rain delaying the start of the match, David Miller and Heinrich Klaasen hit unbeaten fifties to power South Africa to 249/4 in the 40-overs a side match.

Chasing, India found themselves losing four wickets for 51 runs.

From there, Iyer and Samson shared a 67-run stand, before the latter stitched a crucial 93-run stand off 65 balls with Thakur, only for India to fall short narrowly, giving South Africa crucial ten points to push for a direct qualification to next year's ODI World Cup.

India's pursuit of chasing 250 were dealt with huge blows when Kagiso Rabada and Wayne Parnell got rid of Shubman Gill and Shikhar Dhawan respectively through thick inner edges disturbing the stumps.

Debutant Ruturaj Gaikwad made just 19 runs and was stumped off Tabraiz Shamsi. In the next over, Ishan Kishan's 37-ball stay at the crease came to an end by being caught at leg-slip off Keshav Maharaj.

At 51/4 in 17.4 overs, the match looked to be as good as over for India. But Iyer injected the much-needed momentum into the chase, taking the attack to the bowlers by using his feet and timing his shots well. His onslaught on Tabraiz Shamsi was a surreal one - sweeping, lofting and punching to get a hat-trick of fours.

Iyer's counterattacking knock continued with him smacking Lungi Ngidi for a brace of fours, before playing a late cut off Maharaj to reach his fifty in 33 balls. But in the very next over, Iyer was deceived by extra bounce on short ball and pulled straight to mid-on.

With the required run rate going past ten, Thakur had a pacy start with two quick fours and survived two lbw shouts off Shamsi, on which South Africa burnt their full quota of reviews.

Samson then stepped upto be the aggressor, lofting and pulling sweetly for boundaries before reaching his second ODI fifty.

Post reaching his fifty, Samson took consecutive fours off Shamsi while Thakur used Rabada's pace to hit a hat-trick of fours in a 14-run 37th over. But in the next over, Thakur danced down the pitch to heave but was caught at mid-off, ending a crucial 93-run stand off 65 balls.

With Kuldeep Yadav and Avesh Khan falling quickly, Samson tried to get an improbable win for India by hitting three fours and a six in the final over off Shamsi yielding 20 runs. But it was not enough for India to avoid a narrow loss.

Earlier, at 110/4 in 22.2 overs, South Africa were staring at a low total when Miller (75 not out off 63 balls) and Klassen (74 not out off 65 balls) shared a rollicking stand of 139 runs off 106 balls to help South Africa on a competitive total of 249 on a pitch which had something for bowlers.

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The next match of the three-match series will be played on Sunday in Ranchi.