Team India and their fans showed heart after a technical glitch took place before the opening T20I against South Africa on Friday, November 8 at the Kingsmead in Durban. The Indian national anthem stopped midway, but it did not dampen their spirit. Rather, the players and the fans sang the anthem loudly and showed their unity. Hardik Pandya was also seen clapping in a viral video.
The match started on time after South Africa opted to field first after winning the toss. The first innings belonged to Sanju Samson, who did not die wondering in his knock. Samson scored 107 runs off 50 balls, laced with seven fours and 10 sixes. On the back of his knock, India scored 202 for the loss of eight wickets in their 20 overs.
Samson became only the second wicketkeeper-batter after Serbia’s Leslie Dunbar to hit hundreds in back-to-back T20Is. Samson also broke Rohit Sharma’s nine-year old record for the highest individual score by an Indian against the Proteas in Men’s T20Is. At no point in his knock did it seem that Samson was going on the back-foot.
Samson got to his fifty off 27 balls after losing Abhishek Sharma early. He joined hands with his skipper, Suryakumar Yadav, and built a valuable partnership of 66 runs for the second wicket.
After Suryakumar got out to Patrick Kruger, Samson and Tilak Varma put on 77 runs for the third wicket to take the innings forward. Samson brought up his second T20I century off 47 balls and gave India the platform to go for big shots in the death overs.
But after Samson got out, India lost momentum as they somehow went past the 200-run mark. Tilak also made 33 off 18. For the Proteas, Gerald Coetzee was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-0-37-3. Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Nqabayomzi Peter and Kruger picked up a wicket apiece.
