New Delhi. Indian cricket fans, saddened by the historic defeat of Rohit Brigade, got to watch a soothing match on Friday. The Indian team, which went on the South Africa tour under the leadership of Suryakumar Yadav, has started with a win. India defeated South Africa by 61 runs in its very first match. Sanju Samson was the hero of this victory. He played a stormy inning of 107 runs. This is his second consecutive T20 International century. He has become the first Indian to achieve this feat. With this victory, India has taken a 1-0 lead in the four-match T20 series.
Batting first in the match played in Durban, India scored 202 runs for 8 wickets. Indian batsmen took full advantage of the invitation from South African captain Aiden Markram. Aiden Markram won the toss for the batsmen on the Aishgah pitch and asked India to bat first. With this, opener Sanju Samson’s wish was fulfilled. He scored a century in 47 balls. Sanju Samson was out after scoring 107 runs in 50 balls. How aggressive this innings of Sanju must have been can be gauged from the fact that he hit 10 sixes and 7 fours. Sanju Samson was chosen player of the match for this innings.
If Sanju Samson played a strong innings for India in batting, then Varun Chakraborty and Ravi Bishnoi performed brilliantly in bowling. Both the spinners took 3-3 wickets and brought the host team to its knees. Avesh Khan took two wickets while Arshdeep Singh got one wicket. However, it was Arshdeep Singh who started taking wickets, when he dismissed the opposing captain Aiden Markram in his very first over.
The South African team could never recover after losing the wicket of captain Markram (8) in the first over. It also lost the wickets of Tristan Stubbs (11) and Ryan Rickleton (21) in the powerplay itself and went on the backfoot. After this, African fans had expectations from the most expensive batsmen of IPL, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller, but both of them also did not live up to the expectations. Klaasen was out after scoring 25 runs and Miller after scoring 18 runs. With the loss of the fifth wicket in the form of Miller for 87 runs, South Africa’s defeat was certain. Gerald Coetzee (23) finally took his team beyond 140 runs with some fanfare.
Tags: India vs South Africa, Sanju Samson, South africa, Team india
FIRST PUBLISHED : November 9, 2024, 12:11 PM IST