After beating the world champions Australia 2-1 in a three-match T20I series, the Indian team moved on to their next assignment against South Africa today. The first of another three-match series was being played at Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and invited the South African team to bat first.
The Indian seam duo of Deepak Chahar and Arshdeep Singh vindicated the captain’s decision as they broke the back of the South African batting line-up inside the powerplay. Chahar got the prized scalp of Proteas captain Temba Bavuma in the first over itself. Bavuma got bowled through the gate by a vicious in-swinger. Arshdeep continued the onslaught from the other end, picking up three wickets in the second over of the innings.
He first dismissed Quinton De Kock, who dragged a wide ball back onto his stumps. Arshdeep next removed Rilee Rossouw for a golden duck as he edged the ball to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant behind the stumps. He clean bowled the dangerous David Miller with an absolute peach of a delivery.
Chahar further got the wicket of Tristan Stubbs leaving South Africa in a spot of bother at the score of 9/5 after 2.3 overs. Aiden Markram and Wayne Parnell decided to rebuild the South African innings, scoring 25 and 24 respectively. However, they couldn’t do much as both returned back to the pavilion, leaving their side at 68/7 after 15.5 overs.
A brilliant innings from Keshav Maharaj of 41 off 35 balls took South Africa to a total of 106/8 at the end of 20 overs.
With just 106 runs on the board, the South African bowling attack started their defence with a maiden over. Kagiso Rabada drew first blood for his team as he removed the Indian captain Rohit Sharma in the third over. Both Wayne Parnell and Rabada made India work hard for their runs as they kept bowling in the corridor of uncertainty.
Courtesy of some top-notch bowling, India could only manage to score 17 runs in the powerplay which was also their lowest score ever. Anrich Nortje sent shockwaves in the entire country as he got the prized scalp of star batter Virat Kohli, leaving India at 17/2 after 6.1 overs.
Kohli’s wicket brought Suryakumar Yadav to the crease, who released the pressure by scoring two sixes early on in his innings. The runs were still hard to come by with the Proteas bowler not giving an inch to the Indian batters. While KL Rahul was seen struggling at one end, SKY carried his great form in this game as well and played a free-flowing innings.
The partnership kept building gradually as South Africa failed to pick up any more wickets. After taking time early on, Rahul also managed to find some boundaries taking India closer to the target. Both the batters continued to pile up the runs and reached their respective half-centuries. Courtesy of their 90-run partnership, India won the match by eight wickets with 20 balls to spare. Here’s how Twitter reacted to India’s win:
Yeh test match toh ek din me hi khatam ho jaayega.#INDvsSA #IndianCricketTeam
— Aarav Batra (@AaravBatra5) September 28, 2022
Vedant: How good is SKY even when other batters have struggled to strike the ball, he's striking at 140.#INDvsSA
— Sadam Husen ?? (@Sadam_writes) September 28, 2022
#INDvsSA
A very important knock from Rahul. Showing us how to play a test match when the score is less and many batting to come. Shameful of Kohli and Rohit to lose their wicket, trying to keep up with the RR— Arindam Sarkar (@ASoneonly) September 28, 2022
After watching today's match, it seems that Indian cricket team needs to make a lot of progress in T20 field, also keep in mind that T20 World Cup is coming! #INDvsSA @JayShah @BCCI @rohanjaitley
— Dhruv Sutariya (@dps047) September 28, 2022
Totally Out of Syllabus. @ Thiruvananthapuram
Only One ODI @ 2018.
Only 2 T20's, Last in 2019.
What BCCI was going through while choosing this Venue, before a BIG Encounters in Australia. #INDvsSA#INDvSA
— SR Cricket Fantasy (@CricketFantasyS) September 28, 2022
Huge respect for Kohli and Rohit for getting out early and letting KL Rahul, Surya kumar Yadav score half centuries. Legends for a reason. #INDvsSA
— Desi Engineer (@Certified90sKid) September 28, 2022
We are building up to a World Cup like the one in 1996, where teams only needed to pick up SRT early to gobble up India and that's what happened in semi-final. This time that man will be SKY #INDvsSA
— Pratik ?????? ????? (@pratik80s) September 28, 2022
Mutual agreement between KL Rahul & Suriya Kumar be like : 50 tera 50 mera#INDvSA #INDvsSA
— Young White Wolf ? (@Abed__Orton) September 28, 2022
Carnage from quick bowlers ?
A cautious knock from Kl Rahul ?
Another SKY masterclass ?A thumping 8-wicket win for Men In Blue to go 1-0 up in the three-match T20I series vs South Africa #INDvsSA pic.twitter.com/ijl7eE3kgB
— Nitin Agarwal ?? (@Loud_Speaker_3) September 28, 2022
Can't understand why people are trolling @klrahul today?51(56) isn't is a good score in this type of match.
I think @surya_14kumar is in different league. His batting was on another level. But Kl played equally well.#INDvsSA #KLRahul— CRICKET 18 (@Cricket1296_27) September 28, 2022
Those people who trolled arshdeep on dropped catch against pakistan.. They don't deserve to appreciate him today… Well Bowled champs.. Well wishes for T20I world cup.#arshdeepsingh #INDvsSA pic.twitter.com/13m8MOmAl8
— sWaru? (@s_W_ara) September 28, 2022
@surya_14kumar you should insured your wrists right now, coz they are the most valuable assets right now in India.#INDvsSA #INDvsSAT20I
— Saurabh Bane (@100rabhbane) September 28, 2022
Also Read: Three Bowlers Who Have Taken Most Wickets In Powerplay In ODIs
