WATCH: Rinku Singh's Flying Celebration After Picking Up Maiden ODI Wicket on Debut

Rinku Singh ticked another wish from his bucket list on Wednesday, making his ODI debut against South Africa in Gqeberha. The visitors had a nightmarish outing in the second game of the 3-match series after being asked to bat first. Newbie Nandre Burger scalped three wickets while Beuran Hendricks and Keshav Maharaj picked up 2 wickets each, helping the Proteas bundle out India for 211. In reply, Tony de Zorzi scored a brilliant century to sail the South African ship safely to the shore. South Africa won the game by 8 wickets to level the series 1-1.

Meanwhile, Rinku, who was on his debut, couldn’t contribute much with the bat. He scored a 14-ball 17 before getting stumped off Keshav Maharaj’s bowling. But he redeemed himself by picking up a wicket in the second innings. Though the dismissal didn’t affect the results much, it was a moment to cherish for the youngster from Aligarh who was playing the first ODI for India.

The incident happened in the 42^nd over when Rassie van der Dussen was on the field. Rinku bowled it short and wide outside off and Van der Dussen edged the cut to Sanju Samson behind the wickets.

Defending the below-par total, India needed early wickets but they failed to make any breakthrough as openers de Zorzi and Reeza Hendricks (52) set the platform for the chase with a commanding 130-run stand.

Chasing 212, Hendricks held on to one end, while de Zorzi played his shots as the two batters didn’t give much chance to the Indians despite the pace duo of Arshdeep Singh (1/28) and Mukesh Kumar (0/46) bowling a good spell in the powerplay.

De Zorzi reached his fifty in the 18th over before completing the century off 109 balls. Reeza, on the other hand, took 71 balls to reach his half-century with the help of seven fours.

Arshdeep got rid of Reeza in the 28th over, while debutant Rinku Singh claimed van der Dussen’s wicket when SA were just six runs short of the target.