Dharamsala, Oct 2: Rohit Sharma’s maiden century in the shortest format of cricket went in vain as South Africa began their India tour on a winning note by scripting a thrilling seven-wicket victory in the first Twenty20 International cricket match at HPCA Stadium here today.
Sharma (106) hit his first T20 International century to give India a competitive total of 199 for 5 but the visitors rode on some sparkling strokeplay by J P Duminy (68 not out) and A B de Villiers (51) to overhaul the target with two balls to spare and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Hashim Amla (36) and de Villiers laid the foundation of the South Africa win with their 77-run opening stand and Duminy guided the team to the finish line with a quickfire unbeaten 68 off just 34 balls. His 105-run unbeaten partnership for the fourth wicket with Farhaan Behardien (32 not out) sealed the game for the Proteas.
Left-handed Duminy played with a lot of responsibility under pressure and could not have timed his eighth fifty in T20Is better than this. Thanks to his gritty batting, South Africa collected 22 runs off Axar Patel in the 16th over and 14 when Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled the penultimate over.
Duminy hit Patel for three successive sixes and found a six and a four from Bhuvneshwar’s first two balls as he stroked India out of the match. He punished the Indian bowlers with seven sixes.
Debutant left-arm paceman Sreenath Aravind was given the daunting task of bowling the last over from which the Proteas needed 10. Duminy ended India’s thin hopes with a six in the third ball and strolled the winning run in the fourth.
The two teams will meet at Barabati Stadium for the second T20 match of the series on October 5.
