Plan was to challenge the batters to score off tough balls, says Arshdeep Singh

Johannesburg, Dec 18 (IANS) Before the first ODI against South Africa on Sunday, India’s left-arm fast-bowler Arshdeep Singh had no wickets in the format against his name. But the script changed for way better against Proteas, as Arshdeep took career-best figures of 5-37 in ten overs, setting the base for the eight-wicket demolition of the hosts.

Apart from Arshdeep, right-arm pacer Avesh Khan also wreaked havoc on South Africa by taking a superb 4-27 as the fast-bowling duo took out nine Proteas’ wickets inside first 17 overs, thus rendering the match to a foregone conclusion.

Arshdeep credited the simplicity of the plans and asking for batters to score off tougher deliveries as keys for bowling a devastating spell on a used pitch at the Wanderers. "The plan was to just keep it simple, hit good areas, extract some bounce and look for a little movement off the seam."

"We knew if we could get movement inside or outside of the bat, we could get nicks or lbws. That was the plan: to keep it simple and challenge the batters to score off tough balls," he said in the post-match press conference.

Four of Arshdeep’s wickets came in the first ten overs - Reeza Hendricks chopped on to his stumps for an eight-ball duck, while Rassie van der Dussen was trapped lbw with a nip-backer.

Tony de Zorzi was undone by playing one too many against the short balls and gave a top-edge to KL Rahul, and Arshdeep followed it up by getting one to nip back in and disturb Heinrich Klaasen’s leg-stump bail.

Arshdeep admitted the happening of the first ten overs was in stark contrast of what was jotted down in pre-match plans. "We went for dinner last night - me, Axar (Patel) and Avesh - and we were talking about how brutal Proteas are when they wear pink jerseys and how they hit sixes when they are in this jersey. So we were just talking about keeping them under 400."

“But when we saw the purchase from the wicket and a bit of moisture, we just kept it simple and the results fell in place. We could pick up early wickets. He (Avesh) took the pressure off me and got wickets.”

Arshdeep finally had his first five-wicket haul in ODIs when he trapped Andile Phehlukwayo lbw while trying to shape for a slog. He gave credit to his county championship stint at Kent this year, where he picked 13 wickets, for giving him the strength to come back and bowl a second spell after a hectic opening spell.

"I learnt how to recover, how to train individually and how I can maintain my fitness by playing a County stint. It wasn't very fruitful, I didn't get many wickets but it helped me to understand my game, how I can get wickets, how I can contain the batters and things like that. It gives you that extra bit of confidence that you can play at that level," he concluded.