The Proteas' middle and lower order batted bravely but it was not enough to get to the 350 target.
Though the middle and lower order gave it their all, the Proteas came up just short of their target in the first ODI against India in Ranchi on Sunday, ultimately going down by 17 runs, with four balls remaining.
While the South Africans, in pursuit of a 350 target to win, made a poor start with Aiden Markram (7), Ryan Rickelton (0) and Quinton de Kock (0) all back in the change room with just 11 runs on the board, the other batters gave it a real go but their efforts were just not enough.
Matthew Breetzke (72) and Tony de Zorzi (39) got the innings back on track and there were also good contributions from Dewald Brevis (37), Marco Jansen (70) and Corbin Bosch (67 off 51), with Prenelan Subrayen (17) and Nandre Burger (17) playing good supporting roles.
It was, however, the loss of Jansen and Breetzke, going within two balls of each other to the spin of Kuldeep Yadav, in the 34th over that hurt the Proteas in their chase. Kuldeep finished with figures of 4/68.
Both men were well set, having batted brilliantly to get their team back in the contest and needn’t have hit out to the square leg boundary where they were caught.
Bosch fought on bravely towards the end, but it was ultimately too big an ask, the Proteas all out for 332.
Earlier, India scored 349/8 in their 50 overs thanks mainly to the contribution by veteran batter Virat Kohli who scored a scintillating 135 off 120 balls. Things could have been so different though had he been caught on the boundary by De Zorzi before he truly got going.
Kohli though made the most of the missed catch and powered his team toa big total. He was well supported by another veteran Rohit Sharma, who hit 57 off 51, while KL Rahul got 60 and Ravindra Jadeja 32.
The wickets were shared by the Proteas bowlers with Jansen, Burger, Bosch, and Ottneil Baartman getting two each.
