India started the home series against touring South Africa with a statement victory in the opening T20I match in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala with 8 wickets to spare on Wednesday. India won the toss in the series opener and opted to bowl first and the choice ended up proving dividends as the Indian bowling attack wreaked havoc on the South African top-order batsmen.
The host scalped five wickets in the first fifteen deliveries of the game in an unbelievable opening couple of minutes.Arshdeep Singh and Deepak Chahar hit the ground running as they had the visitors praying for mercy with the score at 9-5 midway through the third over.
The Indian innings got off to a shaky start as the hosts lost the prized wickets of skipper Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli cheaply. But, KL Rahul and two-down batsman Suryakumar Yadav stabilised the innings. Once the two batsmen had settled down, the South African bowlers couldn’t break their defences as they helped India cruise to victory, with both batsmen crossing the half-century mark.
Yadav continued his fine touch with yet another performance supported well by Rahul as India achieved the target with eight wickets remaining and took the advantage in the series against the Proteas.
CricketNext team dissects the game with Cricket journalist Chetan Narula
Get the latest Cricket News, Schedule and Cricket Live Scores here
Comments
0 comment