‘Sensible and Responsible chase’ -Twitter laud KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav as India beat South Africa by eight wickets in the first T20I

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:

Also Read: Three Bowlers Who Have Taken Most Wickets In Powerplay In ODIs