Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI Spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi spun a web to strangle the middle-order after Sanju Samson hammered a superb century as India thrashed South Africa by 61 runs to take a 1-0 lead in the series in Durban on November 9.
India have never lost a T20I match at this ground and maintained their record with a comprehensive win. This is India’s fifth win in six T20Is since the T20 World Cup triumph.
Chakravarthy, returning to the T20I side after a gap of three years, and fellow T20 specialist spinner Bishnoi bowled superb lines, mixed up their deliveries brilliantly to tie-down the South African batters in the middle overs as the hosts chased a massive target of 203.
In frustration, the South African batters tried to hit their way out of trouble but failed to do so as Chakravarthy claimed 3-25 while Bishnoi bagged 3-28 as India maintained their dominance over South Africa after defeating the Proteas in the T20 World Cup final a few weeks back. South Africa were never in the chase and were bowled out for 141 in 17.5 overs as India started the series on a winning note.
The Indians came up with a brilliant all-round performance after Sanju Samson set them up with a scintillating 50-ball 107, becoming the first Indian batter to score centuries in back-to-back T20Is.
In response, South Africa landed in trouble early, losing skipper Aiden Markram to Arshdeep Singh on the fourth ball of the innings, edging behind to Samson. From 8/1, they fell to 3-44 with Tristan Stubbs (11) and Ryan Rickelton (21) joining the skipper in the pavilion.
Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller shared a 42 run partnership for the fourth wicket but after being hit for a bit six, Chakravarthy accounted for the South African big-hitter and then claimed the wicket of Miller a ball later to reduce South Africa to 87/5.
