Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma (ANI Photo)

NEW DELHI: India captain KL Rahul couldn’t hide his admiration — or his nerves — after Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma produced commanding innings to script India’s tense 17-run win over South Africa in the opening ODI in Ranchi on Sunday. Kohli’s majestic 135 off 120 balls, his 52nd ODI century, and Rohit’s composed 57 laid the foundation for India’s 349/8, giving the hosts a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Rahul, speaking after the match, marvelled at how effortless the senior duo made batting look. “Watching Rohit and Kohli play like that is always fun. They’ve made oppositions look silly and show why they are who they are,” he said. “I’ve seen this for a long time, but it’s a lot more fun to see them around in the dressing room.”

But despite the strong batting display, the final overs left the skipper on edge.“I’d be lying if I said there were no butterflies in my stomach. We’re playing ODI cricket after a while and there’s some expectation,” Rahul admitted. “But we kept taking wickets and the bowlers stuck to their plans. They pushed us and kept coming hard.”Rahul, who is adapting to a new role in the middle order, said batting at No. 6 was helping him evolve. “Batting at No. 6 is okay… that’s the role I’ve been given in the last 2–3 series. It’s helping personal development.”

He also reserved praise for Harshit Rana and Kuldeep Yadav, who held their nerves under pressure. “Harshit’s done really well… tall, bowls fast, and has great potential. Kuldeep is doing this job — key for us to take wickets.”Kuldeep, who finished with four wickets, revealed he relied on variation to outfox the Proteas batters.“We wanted to attack despite it being tough to bowl… I was mixing scrambled seam and seam-up, trying to bowl back of a length. It was very challenging — the ball was getting wet,” Kuldeep said. “You can’t rely only on stock balls. You have to keep batters guessing.”South Africa’s captain Aiden Markram praised his team’s fight but admitted the top-order collapse hurt them. “Proud of the chase… but the top order falling was defining. Small pieces to do better,” he said.India now head into the second ODI with momentum.