Bhuvneshwar Kumar claimed his first five-wicket haul to round off India’s 28-run victory over South Africa in the first T20 International at the Wanderers Stadium on Sunday.
South Africa were always behind the required rate in their chase after India bludgeoned 203/5 in their innings, as the hosts could only manage 175/9 in their 20 overs.
India proved to be far too ring-wise for the inexperienced South African lineup to go 1-0 up in the three-match series.
The remaining matches will be played at SuperSport Park on Wednesday and Newlands on Saturday.
India, thanks to Shikhar Dhawan (72 off 39 balls, 10 fours and 2 sixes) with good support from the rest of the batting order, all of whom reached double figures, set the Proteas an extremely challenging target of 204 and Kumar made sure that was not going to happen when he took two wickets up front, including that of home captain JP Duminy, and then three more at the back end, including top scorer Reeza Hendricks (70 off 50 balls, 8 fours and a six).
Kumar’s figures were the second best ever for India in the format behind Yuzvendra Chahal’s 6/22 against England.
The Proteas’ day got off to a bad start when AB de Villiers was ruled out of the entire series through a knee injury picked up at practice.
- African News Agency (ANA)
