Rohit Sharma‘s brilliant century was the foundation for India’s first innings total of 199 runs for five wickets. Rohit was full of intent throughout his innings and was almost flawless despite the fast rate he was scoring at. Rohit was well supported by Virat Kohli in the middle overs as the latter scored in his forties. Rohit suffered a tense moment in the very first over when he was struck on the pads by Kyle Abbott, but was saved by height of the delivery. SCORECARD: India vs South Africa 1st T20I at HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala
Rohit was a tad cautious after that, but maintained a steady flow of singles while scoring timely boundaries. He got to his fifty with this patter of scoring, reaching the landmark in his 39th delivery, but Rohit’s innings was only to get better from there. He launched an all-out attack on the clueless South African attack with much success. LIVE UPDATES: India vs South Africa 1st T20I at Dharamsala
Meanwhile, Kohli too had reason to celebrate as he became the first Indian batsmen to reach 1,000 runs in the Twenty20 International (T20I) format. He got to the landmark with a six of Imran Tahir and celebrated the milestone with another six the very next delivery. While Kohli’s innings was good, it was heavily eclipsed by Rohit’s brilliance. Virat was dismissed for 43 off 26 balls.
Rohit’s innings only kept increasing in velocity and brilliance. Arguably, his century was brought up with his best shot of the day. He stood tall and hit the ball straight over the bowlers head and held the elegant poise as the ball sailed over the fence. However his innings ended soon after at a score of 106.
The dismissals of Rohit and Kohli brought MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina to the crease. They continued the good job but were not quite as ferocious as Rohit. To some extent South Africa even managed to get some control over proceedings in the death overs. The 19th over by Chris Morris yielded just seven runs and even produced the wicket of an ominous looking Raina for 14 off eight balls. The final over by Kyle Abbott was similarly tight yielding just 10 runs, as a result of which India failed to breach the 200-run mark.
It was a poor day in the field for South Africa. The bowlers started well, but were unable to adjust when the dew-factor came in and bowled inaccurate deliveries which allowed the batsmen to accelerate. The fielding was not particularly impressive either. JP Duminy, one of the best fielders, was particularly shabby. Only Abbott bowled well and also picked two wickets apart from being relatively economical.
Brief scores
India 199 for five in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 106, Virat Kohli 43; Kyle Abbott 2 for 29) vs South Africa.
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