Virat and Rohit make rivals look silly; great to watch them: KL Rahul

The Bengaluru man also lauded Harshit Rana and Kuldeep Yadav for keeping their nerves in a high-scoring match.

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India skipper KL Rahul marvelled at the ability of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to make the opposition look "silly" after the stalwarts came up with defining knocks against South Africa in the first ODI here on Sunday.

Kohli made his 52nd ODI hundred, a 120-ball 135, and Rohit a well-crafted 57 as India celebrated a tight 17-run win over the Proteas to take 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

"Watching Rohit and Kohli play like that is always fun. They've made oppositions look silly and show why they are who they are. I've seen this for a long time, it's a lot more fun to see them around in the dressing room," said Rahul in the post-match presentation.

However, the close nature of the match made him a bit nervous towards the end.

"I'd be lying if I said there were no butterflies in my stomach. We're playing ODI cricket after a while. There's some expectation.

"But we kept taking wickets and the bowlers stuck to their plans. They pushed us and kept coming hard."  The wicketkeeper batter found batting at No. 6 a new learning experience.

"Batting at No. 6 is okay, got to do the job for the team. That's the role I've been given in the last 2-3 series. It's helping personal development," he added. 

The Bengaluru man lauded Harshit Rana and Kuldeep Yadav for keeping their nerves in a high-scoring match.

"Harshit's done really well, we knew he has potential. He's tall and can bowl fast, he can give runs in the back end but he has great potential.

"To get crucial new-ball wickets is what we expect. Kuldeep is doing this job, key for us to take wickets," he noted.

Kuldeep, who took four wickets, said he was mixing up his deliveries to keep the batters guessing.

"When I came after the first spell, I had a chat with KL. We wanted to attack despite it being tough to bowl as wickets were important.

"I was mixing up the scrambled seam and seam up. Just tried to go back of the length. It was easy to connect off a full length."  Kuldeep admitted that the one ball rule after 34 overs was challenging.

"It was very challenging, the ball was getting really wet. We kept putting dust and asked the umpire for a replacement, that was the plan. We saw a couple of great innings from Bosch and Jansen, as we wanted to get a wicket.

"I bowled a few balls slower through the air, but you can't just rely on stock balls. You have to mix things up and keep batters guessing. That was my plan."  South African captain Aiden Markram said they can do little pieces of play better in the coming matches.

"Proud of the chase. Great to watch guys do their thing and never lose belief. All of us were quietly hopeful.

"Top order falling was defining. Still felt like chasing was the best way to win, but the top order fell early. Small bits of pieces to do better," said Markram.