Huge win for India A, eye-opener for South Africa: Mandeep Singh

NEW DELHI: After their thumping eight-wicket win over the South Africans, India A skipper Mandeep Singh was ecstatic and acknowledged the win as a 'huge victory' for his team. The skipper then jokingly added that the loss will be an 'eye-opener' for South Africa.
Even though the comment was made in good humour, it would be naive on South Africa's part not to take this loss as sign of how tough the long India series is going to be - at least in the limited-overs leg.An international bowling unit consisting Imran Tahir, Kyle Abott, Chris Morris and Kagiso Rabada were toyed with by two uncapped Indian players - Mayank Agarwal (87) and Manan Vohra (56). Agarwal, who is in middle of a terrific purple patch, credited today's knock to the confidence he had of facing these bowlers during the India A tri-series in Chennai, where he had finished as the highest run-getter with 409 runs from five matches.
"Most definitely it helped having a good run there (Chennai) and it gave me confidence to come out here and play the way I did," said Mayank. Praising the opener, skipper Mandeep added, "I told Mayank you are ready. Performances will keep coming and is playing really well. Bu he has to wait for the chance. His batting has been terrific and he deserves a chance in the Indian team."
After the South Africans were off to a good start courtesy AB de Villiers (37) and Faf du Plessis (46), Indian spinners were instrumental in curbing the run-rate and eventually pulling back the South African total to below 200. Chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav was the most economical giving away just 26 runs from his four overs and the wicket of de Villiers.
"The spinners played really well. They were successful in containing South Africa and in the middle overs," noted Mandeep and said he was confident ahead of the match that his team could beat the visitors if they played to their potential. "The team was made in such a manner that everyone in the squad had the experience of playing in IPL, we all have put in match-winning performances in the IPL and I was absolutely sure that if we played well we will beat them and that happened. It is a huge victory for us and an eye-opener for them."
Elaborating on his batting form and talks of India selection, Agarwal said he is just concentrating on the process of scoring. "Every cricketer's dream is to represent his country and play well and I too have a dream. What is in my hand is to perform, and whatever processes I have I just have to repeat and do well, that is all I am thinking," said the Karnataka batsman.
After putting in the hard yards and taking his team to the brink of victory, Agarwal faltered and threw his wicket away after scoring 87 off just 49 balls and he said he was disappointed to get out. "I was pretty disappointed. At the end of the day it is every player's job to finish the match, so I was disappointed that I was not there till the end. It is very important for the set player to finish the game so I was pretty disappointed when I got out," he added.