Cricket Highlights, 28 Sept: IND vs SA (1st T20I)

IND vs SA (1st T20I) – Highlights

India has maintained a great form in T20Is. After winning the series against Australia at home, Rohit Sharma’s team also got a huge win in the first match against South Africa. In the first T20I in Thiruvananthapuram, the hosts crushed the Proteas. They took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series with 8 wickets and 20 balls in hand.

India won the toss and sent South Africa to bat first at the Greenfield International Stadium. Coming down to bat, the Proteas were at a loss due to the great spells of the host bowlers. Captain Temba Bavuma (0) was bowled off the last ball of Deepak Chahar’s first over.

Pacer Arshdeep Singh came to bowl the next over. This time the wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock, Rilee Rossouw, and David Miller returned to the dressing room one by one. When Tristan Stubbs returned with a catch in the hands of Arshdeep off Chahar in the third over, South Africa lost half of their batters.

South Africa had just 9 runs for the loss of 5 wickets then. They have never lost 5 wickets for so few runs in their history. However, the Proteas lost 8 wickets in 20 overs and collected 106 runs mainly thanks to Keshav Maharaj’s innings of 41 runs from 35 balls. Maharaj hit 2 sixes along with 5 fours in his innings.

Two Protea batsmen reached double figures before Maharaj, Aiden Markram scored 25 runs off 24 balls and Wayne Parnell scored 24 runs off 37 balls. Markram put on a 33-run partnership with Parnell before returning to the pavilion for the 6th wicket. Then Keshav Maharaj made two pairs of 26 and 33 runs with Parnell on the 7th wicket and Kagiso Rabada on the 8th wicket respectively.

As a result, the visitors were able to score 106 runs after losing 8 wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Arshdeep Singh took the highest number of 3 wickets with 32 runs in 4 overs for the hosts. Besides, Deepak Chahar and Harshal Patel took 2 wickets each. Axar Patel took 1 wicket conceding just 16 runs in 4 overs. Off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was wicketless but gave only 8 runs in 4 overs.

Batting on this wicket was not very easy for the teams. Because India lost the wicket of Rohit Sharma (0) to score only 17 runs in 6 overs chasing the easy target. Rohit lost his wicket to Kagiso Rabada. Virat Kohli (3 runs from 9 balls) was caught behind by Anrich Nortje in the seventh over. 2 wickets went down for 17 runs, which raised chances of excitement in the match.

The excitement followed, of course, but it was essentially Suryakumar Yadav’s batting. This batsman in dream form has once again batted on a different rhythm than his teammates. His partnership with KL Rahul was unbroken for 93 runs for the third wicket.

Rahul played 56 balls to make his fifty, and Suryakumar took only 33 balls. Suryakumar hit 5 fours and 3 sixes in the innings. Rahul’s innings had 2 fours and 4 sixes. India’s victory was assured with 20 balls to spare. In the end, Rahul left the field unbeaten on 51 runs and Suryakumar unbeaten on 50 runs.

The two teams will meet in the 2nd match of the series next Sunday (October 2) at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati.

IND vs SA Scoreboard

South Africa – 106/8 (20.0)

India – 110/2 (16.4)

Result – India won by 8 wickets

Player of the match – Arshdeep Singh

IND vs SA Playing XIs