Team India, led by Suryakumar Yadav, defeated South Africa by 30 runs in the only warm-up match at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday, February 4, ahead of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
While batting first, the in-form Ishan Kishan set the tone of the match with an explosive start, and then the bowlers did their part in the end to seal the result in their favour. The defending champion continued its winning momentum ahead of the T20 World Cup.
Skipper Suryakumar won the toss and opted to bat first on a pitch that saw teams preferring to chase in the first half of the ongoing WPL.
India’s powerful batting show
The men in blue posted a mammoth total of 240/5 in 20 overs, thanks to Kishan’s 53 off 20, who built a solid opening partnership with Abhishek Sharma and finished the powerplay at 83/1 before the wicket-keeper batter retired out.
Tilak Varma, who recovered from his injury, proved his match fitness, scoring 45 runs off 19 balls, including three fours and three sixes.
Suryakumar Yadav, along with late contributions from Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel, helped the team set a target of 241 for South Africa.
For South Africa, Marco Jansen was economical, conceding only 18 runs and picking up a wicket in two overs. At the same time, Anrich Nortje was the most expensive bowler, as he gave 57 runs in three overs.
South Africa falls short in the run chase.
In response, South Africa failed to chase down the target, falling 30 runs short. The margin of loss reduced because of two overs of 22 and 20 against Shivam Dube at the death overs.
South Africa lost opener George Linde in the first over as Arshdeep Singh gave the first breakthrough to Team India. Star pacer Jasprit Bumrah was rested in the warm-up fixture, and apart from him, India used nine bowlers, including Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma.
Aiden Markram and Ryan Rickelton added a 65-run partnership for the second wicket partnership in just five overs. They didn’t gain the momentum as visitors kept losing wickets regularly, and, in the end, Tristan Stubbs and Jansen showed off their range of shots to help South Africa reduce the margin of defeat.
For India, Abhishek picked up two wickets. Whereas Arshdeep, Axar, Dube, and Varun picked one wicket each.
