Player of the match Sanju Samson struck a brilliant hundred before India’s spinners bamboozled South Africa’s batters as the ICC T20I world champions crushed the Proteas by 61 runs in the first Wonder Cement T20 International at Hollywoodbets Kingsmead in Durban on Friday night.
Chasing India’s formidable total of 202 for eight wickets, South Africa finished on 141 all out in the first of four matches between the teams.
India have yet to be beaten in a T20I international at the Durban ground. The next match is in Gqeberha on Sunday and South Africa have much thinking to do before then.
Proteas’ skipper Aiden Markram was philosophical about the defeat. “I think the main reason we lost the game was our poor start. We would have liked a much better start and we must think deeply, as individuals and as a collective, about how we can be better in Gqeberha. I don’t think the toss was an issue. I must congratulate Sanju Samson for a good knock and there was little we could do to stop him. I was proud of the death bowlers, however, for restricting India to 35 off the last five overs.”
India’s two wrist-spinners, Varan Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi, spearheaded the Indian attack sharing six wickets between them and bringing the momentum of the South African innings to a juddering halt when they came on to bowl in the middle overs.
Chakravarthy finished with 3-25 in four overs – his best T20I analysis – while Bishnoi claimed 3-28 in his full quota. None of the Proteas’ batters could read them.
South Africa’s problems began in the first over when Markram, after two fine cover drives for boundaries, snicked a superb delivery from left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh to wicketkeeper Samson.
Tristan Stubbs also struck two fours before driving seamer Avesh Khan to mid-off. Ryan Rickelton struck a few early blows before slog-sweeping Chakravarthy to long-on.
That left South Africa reeling on 44 for three with their two big hopes, Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller at the crease.
But the two spinners held the whip-hand over both batters, with both men falling to soft dismissals, caught in the deep.
Miller’s 18 came in 22 balls while Klaasen’s 25 took 22 balls as both men were contained.
After the dismissals of Miller and Klaasen in the space of three balls, the South African tail folded with Gerald Coetzee and Marco Jansen striking a few big blows when the result was already decided.
MIGHTY SAMSON
Earlier, Indian opener Samson blazed 107 in 50 balls – the quickest century in T20I cricket by an Indian batter against South Africa – as he led the visitors to their strong total.
It was Samson’s second consecutive hundred following his last knock against Bangladesh, and his first away from the Indian subcontinent.
The right-handed batter struck seven fours and 10 sixes in his lightning innings off just 50 balls.
Samson and fellow opener Abhishek Sharma made their ultra-aggressive intentions clear from the opening ball after Aiden Markram had won the toss and chosen to bowl at a windy, overcast Kingsmead.
Sharma missed more than he connected, and he only survived until the fourth over when Markram, at mid-off took, a fine running catch off the bowling of Coetzee.
This setback only encouraged the Indian batters as Samson and skipper Suryakumar Yadav blitzed the bowling in an electric stand of 66 in 37 balls.
The South African bowlers couldn’t find their lines and lengths during this period and they paid the price, disappearing to every corner of Kingsmead.
It was a particularly tough experience for Patrick Kruger who went for 35 in his two overs, legspinner Nquaba Peter (35 off three overs) and debutant Andile Simelane (27 off two overs).
Kruger did, however, claim the wicket of Yadav, caught on the boundary, but this only led to the arrival of Tilak Varma.
He and Samson then added a further 77 off 34 balls for the third wicket as the South African bowlers continued to suffer.
Samson reached three figures in just 47 balls, having taken only 20 balls to go from 50 to one hundred.
When Peter finally claimed his scalp, well caught by Tristan Stubbs on the boundary, he had put the tourists in charge of the match with a remarkable display of power hitting, wristy strokeplay and canny manipulation.
To South Africa’s credit, they then restricted the Indian tail to just 35 runs for four wickets in the final five overs – with Jansen and Coetzee to the fore – after India had threatened to score 230 or more.
Coetzee finished with 3-35 off his four overs and Jansen an impressive 1-24 off his quota.
SOUTH AFRICA: Ryan Rickelton (wk), Aiden Markram (capt), Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Patrick Kruger, Marco Jansen, Andile Simelane, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Nqabayomzi Peter
INDIA: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Varun Chakravarthy
