The Barabati Stadium in Cuttack witnessed Hardik Pandya’s all-round brilliance as India outclassed South Africa by 101 runs in the first T20I. Pandya’s 28-ball 59 helped India reach a total of 175. Later, with the ball, he claimed one wicket as South Africa were bundled out for 74.
In the first half, it was Pandya against the South African bowlers. On a surface where most batters struggled to understand the pace of the wicket, Pandya struck the ball cleanly from the very start. Even though it was his first international game since the Asia Cup, there were no signs of rustiness.
Walking in at N0. 6 number six and India struggling at 78 for four, Pandya wasted little time before getting after the bowling. He was hitting cleanly and to all parts of the ground.
Two shots stood out in his innings, which was laced with four sixes and six fours. Both came off the bowling of Anrich Nortje, who was playing his first T20I after a gap of more than a year. Stepping down the pitch to a delivery hurled at 145 kmph, he hit straight down the ground to find the fence. Next, when Nortje banged it in short, Pandya nonchalantly used the pace and guided it over third for six. It was an innings of rare brilliance from India’s premier all-rounder.
Apart from Pandya, the rest disappointed. The other batters accumulated 103 runs off 92 deliveries. Tilak Varma and Axar Patel could not convert starts into big scores. The in-form Abhishek Sharma was dismissed for 17. Lungi Ngidi was brilliant with the new ball and took three wickets. Although he did not take a wicket, Marco Jansen bowled an economical spell. Apart from his final over, Lutho Sipamla also bowled well for his two wickets.
Such was Pandya’s day that whatever he touched turned into gold. With his first delivery, he claimed the wicket of his former IPL teammate David Miller. That was the first over after the Power Play. Before that, Arshdeep Singh and Axar had done the early damage by rattling South Africa’s top order. A total of 45 runs were scored for the loss of three wickets in the first six overs.
Arshdeep found movement early to remove Quinton de Kock and Tristan Stubbs in his first two overs. Thereafter, India kept chipping away. In the absence of Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakaravarthy and Axar outfoxed the batters in the middle overs and shared four wickets. Jasprit Bumrah, wicketless in his first spell, took two in his third over, including that of Dewald Brevis, who top-scored for the visitors with 22. Bumrah became the second Indian to take 100 T20I wickets after Arshdeep. Dube wrapped up the innings by taking the final wicket.
Brief scores: India 175/6 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 59*, Tilak Varma 26; Lungi Ngidi 3/31) beat South Africa 74 in 12.3 overs (Dewald Brevis 22, Axar Patel 2/7) by 101 runs.
For More Sports Related News: Follow RevSportz
