Chasing a mammoth 200 runs on a pacer friendly but a short ground with the outfield getting wet thanks to the dew, South Africa made the most of a strong start and a flourish by JP Duminy to win the first T20 of the Mahatma Gandhi - Nelson Mandela series by 7 wickets with two balls to spare in Dharamsala on Friday.
AB de Villiers (51) and JP Duminy (68) hit the Indian medium pace attack all over a packed HPCA Ground in what became a one sided show at the end. With the loss, Rohit Sharma’s maiden ton in T20’s (106) went in vain as the Indian bowlers didn’t make the most of a regained momentum after the visitors were cruising early on.
South Africa enjoyed a glorious start to the chase thanks to Hashim Amla (36) and de Villiers. The big hitting duo brought together the 50 in just 26 balls to have the Proteas headed home with ease at one stage.
However, they both went in quick succession to give India a glimpse of hope and helped reduce the run rate too which was growing at the stage.
While a run out removed Amla in the eighth over; de Villiers was removed by Ravichandran Ashwin. At 77/0, Mohit Sharma’s throw from the boundary had Amla short with Ashwin removing the bails. A T20 expert in de Villiers was in blistering form and Ashwin changed his pace to bowl him out to reduce South Africa to 93/2.
That momentum shift further went in India’s favour when debutant Sreenath Aravind bowled the visiting captain Faf du Plessis in the next over.
With three quick wickets, the two teams looked to be at par and it was anyone’s ball game.
However all that changed in the very next over by Axar Patel. Conceding three sixes in a row to Duminy, the Indian gave South Africa back the edge and the leftie batsman the momentum he needed. His first two hits wentover deep mid wicket but the third took the cake in terms of splendid and strong hitting.
Thereafter the momentum was in South Africa’s way and they never let go. Duminy continued to take the Indian bowling to the cleaners and hit a four and six off the last over too before ending with a calm single to punch the air in joy. India were put into bat by du Plessis and they didn’t enjoy the best of starts.
Shikhar Dhawan’s return from injury didn’t last long as he was gone in the fourth over after Rohit’s mistake of calling for a run from a fumble and despite Dhawan’s desperate dive, he was gone run out. Unperturbed, Rohit continued his blazing start hitting the first six off the match to Morris. Reacting to a short ball, he swiveled and pulled for a six.
In the next over by Morris, he bore the brunt of Virat Kohli who hit him for a six and a four off consecutive deliveries. At this stage, Morris had gone for 28 runs from his first two overs.
In the twelfth over bowled by Imran Tahir who was attributed as a dangerous element by Sachin Tendulkar and du Plessis in the lead-up, was hit for 21 runs. On the first ball, Rohit stepped up and hit across the line to clear the mid wicket boundary with much ease. A ball later, Kohli got into the act too. He hit the ball a little flatter for another huge hit. On the next ball, he sent the sorry ball over long off for another maximum.
Kagiso Rabada was the next in line to be smashed for two sixes by Rohit and the visitors looked to be clueless of how to contain him.
As India’s 150 came up in the 15th over, fittingly with a six by Rohit, his maiden ton came up too. His hundred came up in 62 balls with 12 fours and five sixes involved.
In the next over, Kyle Abbott removed both the dangerous batsmen with Kohli going first. His 43-run knock ended after a flat hit was caught by Duminy. On the last delivery, Rohit followed too. Ironically he had hit the short delivery really well throughout his innings but this time he mistimed to be caught by Morris.