Kanpur: Indian skipper MS Dhoni has been receiving a lot of flak for India’s five-run loss to South Africa in a thriller in the opening ODI at Green Park, Kanpur on Sunday. However, South Africa’s last-over hero Kagiso Rabada’s words should make Dhoni’s detractors eat humble pie, as according to the Proteas bowler the sheer presence of the Indian captain on the crease made him nervous at that moment.

“I was nervous because you have MS Dhoni on the other side. I've been watching him since I was a kid and have seen how destructive he is. I'm happy I pulled through today. I wasn't thinking about the hat-trick, there were a lot of things in my mind,” said Rabada, adding, “I think I owed that to the team because I dropped Rohit on the boundary. That could have turned out badly.”

Meanwhile, South Africa captain AB de Villiers, who was man-of-the-match for his outstanding century, said, “It was an amazing game of cricket. Close games like that bring the fans in. There were lots of times when the momentum turned. I thought Tahir's over turned the game on its head. We were out of it then. Rabada proved to be a handful and he's got a bright future. We just want to move on to the next game.”