India vs South Africa – 5 Talking Points

India vs South Africa today saw the Proteas chase down 199 in the twentieth over. The match went down to the wire and is the first time the South Africans have chased down such a total against India.

Read on for five points from the first match in the Proteas’ tour of India.

1) Ro-hit-man

Rohit Sharma has finally become a responsible batsman and his mature innings today was an example of this. Every big shot was followed by a single, as he wanted to convert his start into a big score. With his 106 he became the second Indian to score a century in the T20 format and also the second Indian to score a century in all formats of the game. He also holds the record for the highest individual score for an Indian in the ODI and T20 formats.

2) Missing players

The missing players list today consisted of Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn, Bhajji and Ajinkiya Rahane. The two South African pacers were rested while on the other hand Rahane’s and Harbhajan Singh’s exclusion came as a surprise. On the other end of the spectrum, S Arvind made his T20 debut for India today.

3) Virat Kohli: fastest to 1000 T20 runs

Virat kohli reached 1000 runs and in the process became the 1st Indian to do so. He also became the fastest player to reach 1000 T20 runs, breaking AB de Villiers’ record. Kohli took three innings lesser than the South African to achieve this feat.

4) Proteas’ “un-protea” like fielding

Today the Proteas displayed a poor fielding show. There were a couple of fumbles and spilled catches. Both Rabada and De Lange dropped catches on their follow throughs while JP Duminy had a couple of misses in the outfield. Even De Lange had a fumble but luckily for South Africa it resulted in the Shikhar Dhawan’s run out.

On the whole, today’s match saw the Proteas at a far cry from Jonty Rhodes’ fielding standards.

5) De Villiers and Duminy  half centuries

Mr 360,  de Villiers, showed why he is world’s best batsman by giving the Proteas a solid start by scoring a quickfire 50. Then JP Duminy, after receiving a reprieve from the umpire, as he was given not out lbw to Bhuvneshwar Kumar, anchored the innings and changed the course of the game by hitting 3 consecutive sixes off Axar Patel and took South Africa over the line.