Team India started off its T20 series against South Africa on a winning note. In the first match held today, India got a dominating victory against Proteas by 8 wickets. While bowlers showed their firepower, batters showed resilience on a tough pitch.
After winning the toss, Rohit Sharma elected to bowl first. Deepak Chahar (2/24) and Arshdeep Singh (3/32) breathed fire in their respective opening spells. As a result, South Africa lost five wickets in just 2.5 overs. At that point, their score was 9/5. Later, Aiden Markram (25) and Wayne Parnell (24) tried to build a partnership but Harshal Patel (2/26) got the former’s wicket in the eighth over. After that, Keshav Maharaj (41) gave good support to Parnell. The latter got out while trying to score big in the death overs. In the final overs, Keshav Maharaj flexed his arms and hit some big shots. His contribution helped South Africa in scoring 106/8 in 20 overs.
India got into trouble pretty early in this low-scoring chase. Opener Rohit Sharma got out for a duck and Virat Kohli went back to the pavilion without crossing a single-digit mark. At that point, the score was 17/2. After that, KL Rahul (51) and Surya Kumar Yadav (50) played cautiously and made sure not to lose another wicket. They made a partnership of 93 runs and helped India in scoring 110/2 in 16.4 overs. In the process, both of them scored their respective half-centuries as well.
The second T20I game will be held on October 2nd in Guwahati.