In the face of adversity, he shown incredible fortitude and scored 56 off 64 balls with seven fours.
Rahul became the fourth Indian player to reach 1,000 ODI runs in 2023 with his 17th score in the battle.
These are his statistics.
Rahul batted first in Gqeberha, India, and his superb hand had the team reeling at 46/2 when he got there.
Together, he and opening batsman Sai Sudharsan (62) amassed 68 runs for the third wicket.
Despite playing risk-free cricket, Rahul continued to hit the odd boundary.
Eventually, in the 36th over, he was bowled out by Nandre Burger, and India folded for 211.
This year’s fourth Indian to reach 1,000 runs
In ODIs this year, Rahul has, as previously said, become the third Indian player to score 1,000 runs or more.
He has now joined Rohit Sharma (1,255), Virat Kohli (1,377), and Shubman Gill (1,584).
In 26 ODIs played in 2023, he amassed 1,039 runs at 69.26. Two tons and seven fifty are included in the total.
Rahul’s best ODI run-scoring year is 2023.
Rahul outpaces the 2,500-run mark.
Rahul achieved the milestone of 2,000 runs in the format earlier this year during the Asia Cup match against a Pakistan.
Rahul and Kohli are now tied for third place among Indian batters to reach the milestone in 53 innings.
As of the moment, the former has clocked 2,799 runs at 50.14 from 74 ODIs. He weighs seven tons and eighteen fifty.
Rahul has scored 166 runs at a pace of 27.66 against SA.
How did the match end up?
In the game, no other Indian batter was able to score more than 20 runs save for Rahul and Sudharsan.
Beuran Hendricks and Keshav Maharaj each removed two batters, while Nandre Burger (3/30) was the best Proteas bowler.
Opening scorers for SA, Reeza Hendricks (52) and Tony de Zorzi (119*), contributed 130 runs as they chased 212.
Due to the latter’s century, SA triumphed by an easy eight wickets.