Vande Mataram precedes national anthem as India take on Japan in historic T20I
Vande Mataram was played before the national anthem on foreign soil for the first time at a cricket match when the national song was rendered ahead of the start of the historic India-Japan one-off T20I at the Sano International Stadium here on Tuesday.
Vande Mataram was first played before the Indian national anthem at India's T20I against Afghanistan on September 13, marking the first such instance at an international sports event.
The Ministry of Home Affairs had issued guidelines on February 6 requiring the rendition of Vande Mataram as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of the national song.
The first-ever T20I between India and Japan, meanwhile, was reduced to a five-overs-per-side contest after heavy overnight rain left the outfield wet and delayed the start of play.
India captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat.
Teams:
India XI: Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer (c), Shivam Dube, Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur, Arshdeep Singh.
Japan XI: Lachlan Yamamoto-Lake, Reo Sakurano-Thomas, Kendel Kadowaki-Fleming (c), Benjamin Ito-Davis, Wataru Miyauchi, Alexander Shirai-Patmore (wk), Charlie Hara-Hinze, Ibrahim Takahashi, Declan Suzuki-McComb, Makoto Taniyama, Shoma Sugaya-Slater.
