(Cricket news) A potent opening spell from Arshdeep Singh (3/32) and Deepak Chahar (2/24) set up a dominant eight-wicket win over South Africa on a very testing Thiruvananthapuram pitch to go 1-0 up in the three-match series on Wednesday. India's new-ball bowlers had the Proteas on the mat at 9/5 halfway through the third over, before Keshav Maharaj's spirited innings inspired a fightback that helped them post a respectable target of 106/8. Despite losing two wickets up top cheaply, Suryakumar Yadav and KL Rahul finished off the chase in the 17th over with both hitting half-century.
The match was nearly all decided in the first 15 balls itself as the frontline pacers were rested but a match-defining display of swing bowling by Arshdeep and Chahar upfront with the new ball ensured that the hard hitting South African batsmen were in check. The tinge of green on the pitch helped both the seamers. In the first over Chahar set up Temba Bavuma with a series of outswingers before bringing one back in sharply which completely bamboozled the South African captain. Arshdeep then got three strikes in his opening over as Quinton de Kock chopped one onto his stumps, Rilee Rossouw edged one behind trying to drive the ball and David Miller was undone by another brilliant inswinger. Tristan Stubbs was the third batter to go for a golden duck when Chahar picked his second wicket.
At 9 for 5, South Africa showed some fight as Adien Markram (25 off 24) and Wayne Parnell's (24 off 37) took them to 30/5 at the end of powerplay. The only batter to show proper impetus was Maharaj, who smacked two sixes and five boundaries in his 35-ball cameo of 41. Harshal Patel removed South Africa's last proper batter in Markram with the help of DRS. Maharaj was batting on 5 off 16 but broke the shackles with an authoritative shot as he ultimately hit 17-runs from Arshdeep’s 19th over which saw the tourists crawling their way into triple digits.
After a brief drizzle in the second innings, Kagiso Rabada began the match with a maiden and then in his next over sent Rohit Sharma packing for a duck with a peach of a delivery. At the other end, Rahul continued to play test match style cricket as he dodge the slew of in and outswingers from Parnell with India finishing with their lowest powerplay score in T20s with a score of 17/1 in 6 overs. Virat Kohli saw an opportunity to break the shackles at the sight of a bowling change when Anrich Nortje began with a short and wide delivery but Kohli could only manage to get a thick outside edge to the 'keeper.
Suryakumar and Rahul ensured there were no more hiccups as Sky got off the mark with back to back sixes off Nortje to give India the move on. The pair rotated the strike well as Rahul got into his element with a classic wristy flick over long-on for six. India went past the fifty in the 11th over before the duo took the attack to the spinners. Parnell did some damage control and finished with impressive figures of 4-0-14-0 but Nortje continued leaking runs as they brought up India's 100. Rahul then finished the match with a slog sweep into the stands to close the chase in some style and also get his half century.
Brief scores: South Africa 106/8 in 20 overs (Keshav Maharaj 41; Arshdeep Singh 3-32, Deepak Chahar 2-24) lost to India 110/2 in 16.4 overs (KL Rahul 51*, Suryakumar Yadav 50*; Kagiso Rabada 1/16) by 8 wickets.
Also read: Focus is on adaptability ahead of T20 WC: Arshdeep
