Thiruvananthapuram: Unbeaten fifties by KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav helped India clinch a dominant 8 wickets win over South Africa in the first T20I at the Greenfield International Stadium here on Wednesday.
Contributions from pacers Arshdeep Singh (3/32) and Deepak Chahar (2/24), who shared five wickets between them inside 3 overs, also scripted the early narrative of the match.
South Africa were reduced to 9/5, by taking wickets of Quinton de Kock (1), Temba Bavuma (0), Rilee Rossouw (0), Aiden Markram (0) and David Miller (0), as they did not have any answer to the swinging deliveries.
South Africa finished their innings at 106/8 in 20 overs.
In reply, India coast past the visitors by scoring 110/2 in 16.4 overs.
India too lost two early wickets on a wicket that helped the bowlers. Rohit Sharma (0) and Virat Kohli (3) were dismissed inside 7 overs as India had were reduced to 17/2. But Rahul hung in and SKY continued to send the spectators into tizzy with his daredevilry shots.
Rahul and SKY remained unbeaten on 51 and 50, respectively.
SKY's 50 came in 33 balls with five boundaries and 3 sixes and Rahul made 51 in 56 balls, heaving 4 sixes and smashing two boundaries.
Sent into bat, South Africa started off the innings poorly. They lost half of their batsmen inside three overs. The Indian pacers used the green tinge on the track and movement in the air.
Ravichandran Ashwin was the most miserly bowler who conceded just 8 runs in 4 overs, bowling one maiden.
Markram (25 off 24) was the only batsman to have negotiated the movement well, but he too perished in Harshal Patel (2/26) first over.
Wyne Parnell (24 off 37) held one end up and Kesav Maharaj's 41 off 35 balls was the main reason the score crossed the 100-mark. (UNI)