Team India's new ball duo of Deepak Chahar and Arshdeep Singh combine to stun South African batters in the first T20I on September 28 (Wednesday) in Thiruvananthapuram. On a lush green pitch, Chahar and Arshdeep put on an exhibition of swing bowling and made Protea batters dance to the tunes of their swinging deliveries.
Right-arm pacer Chahar started the onslaught in the very first over of the game. After taking two deliveries away from Temba Bavuma, Chahar delivered an unplayable in-swinging nut, which exposed the massive gap between the South African captain's bat and pad. The ball castled into the middle pole and a stunned Bavuma was forced to take a long walk back to the dugout without troubling the scorers after playing four balls.
In the very next over, Arshdeep struck thrice, dismissing Quinton de Kock, Rilee Rossouw and David Miller. Chahar in the very next over dismissed Tristan Stubbs, reducing the visitors to 9/5 in just 2.3 overs.
As a result, South Africa bagged an unwanted record of losing the first five wickets in the quickest times across all T20 cricket.
With five wickets gone, there was no coming back for South Africa and predictably there wasn't any change in the script.
Aiden Markram (25 off 24 balls), Wayne Parnell (24 off 37 balls) and Keshav Maharaj (41 off 35 balls) did try their bit in resurrecting the innings but the damage done during the first three overs of powerplay did affect the approach of the visitors severely.
Earlier, before the game got underway, captain Rohit Sharma announced a few major changes in the playing XI. Rohit replaced rested Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar with Rishabh Pant and Arshdeep Singh. In addition, Jasprit Bumrah was replaced by Deepak Chahar as India’s pace-bowling spearhead complaint of a back issue. Also, Ravichandran Ashwin has been picked in the side in place of Yuzvendra Chahal.
India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Arshdeep Singh
South Africa Playing XI: Quinton de Kock(w), Temba Bavuma(c), Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi
(With PTI inputs)
