SA stick with winning team

Johannesburg - The Proteas team is likely to remain unchanged for the second one-day international against India at the Wanderers on Saturday, captain Graeme Smith said on Thursday.

South Africa beat India by 135 runs at Kingsmead on Wednesday for a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.

"It’s a bit too early to say and I have to speak to the selectors first, but I don’t think they’ll make too many changes for the next game," Smith said after the decisive victory.

"Most guys will get the opportunity to have another go," he said.

Lonwabo Tsotsobe’s four-wicket haul earned him the man of the match award, while AB de Villiers (76), JP Duminy (73) and Hashim Amla (50) all made contributions with the bat in Durban.

"We played well, and just need to regroup and get ready for the Wanderers on Saturday," said Smith.

"We have a lot of young guys in the squad all pushing for their spots, which makes it exciting for us, and it’s going to be awesome to play there as we haven’t played in Johannesburg for quite while."

Smith said his team did well to reach 289 for nine, and he was not too worried about the way some of the batsmen lost their wickets.

"It’s not a massive concern. We must just make sure we concentrate more to some of the part-time bowlers as we do when facing someone like Harbhajan [Singh]."

India were in trouble from the start and were never going to get close to their target on a pitch that provided both bounce and seam.

They were four wickets down for only 43 runs with Sachin Tendulkar back in the changeroom after just 11 overs.

India’s captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni felt their problems lay in the bowling department as they allowed South Africa to set such a high target.

Ashish Nehra went for 61 runs off his six overs, finishing with figures of one for 61 off six overs.

"When you play with only four bowlers, you have the pressure that if one bowler has a bad day, you have to put the rest of the overs on the part-timers," said Dhoni.

"Fortunately in this game, the part-timers brought us back into the game, but still chasing close to 280-285 in Durban was quite a difficult task," he said.

India were without Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir in the batting department as they went home early with injuries, and bowler Praveen Kumar damaged his elbow in the Twenty20 match last Sunday so he too has returned to India to recover in time for the World Cup next month.

The second ODI between South Africa and India takes place at the Wanderers Stadium on Saturday.