BCCI Secretary Jay Shah used the social media platform X (previously known as Twitter) on Saturday (November 9) to commend the young Indian team, led by Suryakumar Yadav for their magnificent performance in the first T20I match against South Africa, which took place at Kingsmead in Durban on Friday (November 8). The top-ranked T20I squad defeated Aidan Markram’s team by 61 runs to lead 1-0 in the ongoing four-match series.
After being asked to field first, India managed to score 202 runs on the board riding on Sanju Samson’s second t20i century in a row (107 runs off 50 balls) and then Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi shared three wickets each to restrict the Proteas for 141 runs in 17.5 overs.
Samson was later awarded Player of the Match for his extraordinary performance with the bat.
Jay Shah went on to praise the Indian side, and tweeted, “Great start for the Men in Blue in the T20I series against the Proteas! Character shown by the young team to keep a very aggressive batting lineup at bay was commendable. Special thanks to @IamSanjuSamson for making a hundred in successive T20I’s, the brilliant wrist spin of @chakaravarthy29 and Ravi Bishnoi which helped us win the match handsomely! @BCCI.”
Samson came out to bat in the very first over of the innings for India and scored an impressive 50-ball century packed with seven boundaries and ten sixes. He shared a partnership of 66 runs with Suryakumar Yadav for the second wicket and 77 runs for the third wicket with Tilak Varma.
Right arm fast bowler Gerald Coetzee was able to manage his three wickets for 37 runs in four overs for the bowling section, while Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Nqabayomzi Peter, and Patrick Kruger picked one wicket each.
South Africa, on the other hand, was plagued by the constant fall of wickets during their innings chasing a target of 203 runs. For the hosts, the highest scorer turned out to be wicket–keeper batter Heinrich Klaasen, who managed to made 25 runs, with Coetzee making 23 runs.
Chakravarthy wrapped up the match with bowling figures of 3 for 25 in 4 overs while Bishnoi was expensive giving away 28 runs in his 4 over spell. In addition to the spin duo, pace bowling Avesh Khan also scalped 2 wickets and Arshdeep gave away 25 runs in 3 overs, taking the wicket of one batter.
