Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 28: Arshdeep Singh and Deepak Chahar hit the South Africans hard with some magical swing bowling before Suryakumar Yadav’s little gem on a difficult track ensured an easy eight-wicket victory for India in the first T20 International here on Wednesday.
A target of 107 on a pitch with underlying moisture and more than waist high bounce at times was a struggle before Suryakumar (50* in 33 balls) released the pressure created by KL Rahul (51*, 56 balls) as India won the game in 16.4 overs to go 1-0 up in three-match series.
The pitch that former India head coach Ravi Shastri on air termed “not ideal for T20 cricket” had batters of both teams finding it difficult to cope with pace and movement.
It was Arshdeep (3/32) and Chahar (2/24), who basically clinched the issue for India within first 15 deliveries of the start after skipper Rohit Sharma called it right at the toss. Once South Africa were reeling at 9/5 in 2.3 overs, the game as a contest was over and 106/8 even on a difficult track was a sub-par score.
The South Africans did bowl their heart out in defence.
Kagiso Rabada bowled an ideal Test match delivery that pitched on length and reared up while moving a shade and all Rohit Sharma (0) could do was to dangle his bat at the corridor of uncertainty.
Virat Kohli (3) got an express delivery from Anrich Nortje that kept climbing as he tried to have a go away from his body and the edge was taken by Quinton de Kock.
Surya, India’s best T20 batter by a distance, got a streaky six when his attempted flick turned into an outside edge that flew over third-man for a maximum off Nortje.
Rahul’s batting at the other end on the same strip became an ordeal as India had their lowest ever Powerplay score on board.
Earlier, Arshdeep and Chahar made the white Kookaburra talk with some incisive swing bowling after Jasprit Bumrah pulled out of the game due to his recurrent back problem.
The duo moved the ball both ways, making full use of the nip in the air and the bounce off the surface.
Temba Bavuma (0) was nicely set up by Chahar with stock outswingers, which the skipper left alone before a banana inswinger had him bowled through the gate. The deviation into the batter was as big as it could be.
With five wickets gone for nine runs, there was no coming back for South Africa and predictably there wasn’t any change in the script. (PTI)
