🏏South Africa tour of India 2025: India vs SA - 1st T20I🏏 - Page 11

India have kicked off the 5-match T20I series in emphatic fashion. Early jitters threatened to derail India's innings, until Hardik Pandya stepped in and rewrote the script with a superb knock on a stubborn pitch. With others fighting for timing, his innings lifted India beyond what looked like a modest score. And once the bowlers came on, the game flipped completely. South Africa’s top-order crumbled, losing de Kock, Stubbs, Markram and Miller even before the scoreboard could crawl to 50. Brevis offered lone resistance, holding one end despite wickets tumbling around him, but with the required rate climbing steeply, South Africa stayed behind the chase throughout and were eventually bowled out for 74. Both sets of bowlers exploited the conditions well, striking at regular intervals, but it was Hardik Pandya’s innings that truly shaped the outcome. Stay around for the presentations..

Hardik pandya was robbed of the captaincy. Only GGs puppets can become captain

Most dismissals for an India wicketkeeper in a T20I

5 - MS Dhoni vs ENG, Bristol, 2018

4 - MS Dhoni vs AFG, Gros Islet, 2010

4 - MS Dhoni vs PAK, Colombo (RPS), 2012

4 - MS Dhoni vs SL, Cuttack, 2017

4 - Dinesh Karthik vs ENG, Southampton, 2022

4 - Jitesh Sharma vs SA, Cuttack, 2025

Lowest all-out totals vs IND in T20Is

57 - UAE, Dubai, 2025

66 - NZ, Ahmedabad, 2023

70 - IRE, Dublin (Malahide), 2018

74 - SA, Cuttack, 2025

80 - ENG, Colombo (RPS), 2012

Sub-100 all-out totals for SA in T20Is

74 vs IND, Cuttack, 2025

87 vs IND, Rajkot, 2022

89 vs AUS, Johannesburg, 2020

95 vs IND, Johannesburg, 2023

96 vs AUS, Cape Town, 2020

98 vs SL, Colombo (RPS), 2018

South Africa have now lost six T20Is by a margin of 100-plus runs, three of those to India.

Arshdeep Singh: The thought process is simple: just go there and try to use as much help as there is in the wicket and try to get the team early wickets. I feel like if you were hitting the seam hard, there was something in the wicket, either it was bouncing more or seaming in or out. So the idea was to just hit the seam as hard as possible and get as much purchase off the wicket. I bowled full, got a wicket. Then bowled full, went for a four. Then I knew I had to bowl short, got a wicket on that. Again bowled full, went for a four. So yeah, I was getting quick reminders there. Yeah, I just told him (Bumrah), “Welcome.” Congratulated him and told him, “Welcome to the club” (100 T20I wickets). Yes, it makes life very easy for the captain as well. They can play around with the bowling combinations, whenever he wants Jassi (Bumrah) bhai to bowl three in the powerplay or me to bowl three in the powerplay. We just try to give him as much flexibility as possible and we’re enjoying each other’s company. I mean, I’m just trying to enjoy the present and just have fun. It’s very rare you get to play on these kinds of wickets where there’s seam and swing on offer. So I just try to stay patient, not get too excited seeing help in the wicket, stay disciplined and enjoy whatever is there.

Now i have come to understand that only test format is problem for our boys

Originally posted by: SlatePencil

Hardik pandya was robbed of the captaincy. Only GGs puppets can become captain

Atleast they should make rahul captain of odi's na..rohit,kohli,rahul all seem so comfortable together ..

Originally posted by: SlatePencil

Hardik pandya was robbed of the captaincy. Only GGs puppets can become captain

Aiden Markram: Yeah, I think there were some good signs. It was a ball-in-the-field. Nice to start the way we did. We put some emphasis on starting well, and that was a box we ticked, so we can be proud of that. From a batting point of view, it’s unfortunately something that can happen in this format. It’s a pity that it had to happen in the first game, but you have to draw a line through it. It’s a quick turnaround and we’ll give it another crack in a couple of days’ time. Yeah, I felt it (the pitch) was quite sticky. That steep tennis-ball bounce and a little bit there with the ball throughout the innings. 175, I suppose we would have taken it. We would’ve backed ourselves to chase that down. You can always nitpick and find areas where you feel it could have been better to reduce it by 10-15 runs, but we would have taken that. We just needed to be better with the bat, and unfortunately that wasn’t the case. It’s quite hard. Nowadays in T20 cricket, there’s not much time to look around and absorb. But the biggest factor was obviously not being able to build partnerships, settling after losing wickets and getting some momentum on our side. So yeah, we’ll have brief conversations tomorrow. You don’t want to dive too deep into things like this. You almost just want to draw a line through it and stick to the positive ways of this format.