India have comfortably defeated South Africa in the first T20I of the 3-match series in Trivandrum! Firstly, Indian pacers Arshdeep Singh and Deepak Chahar bowled brilliant upfront to reduce the visiting side to 9 runs for the loss of 5 wickets inside 3 overs. However, the lower order staged a brilliant comeback to help Proteas to get past the 100-run mark!
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| Image Credits: Hindustan Times |
During the run-chase, India lost both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli cheaply but did not put a foot wrong later on in the run-chase! Both KL Rahul (51*) and Suryakumar Yadav (50*) scored half-centuries each as they marched India to a huge 8-wicket victory with 3.2 balls to spare.
Suryakumar Yadav felt like he was batting on a different surface compared to others in this match! His unbeaten 33-ball 50* speaks volumes of his mental strength about batting on a slow and tricky surface! During this match, Suryakumar made a couple of records for himself in this T20I format of the game!
#1: Most runs by an Indian player in a calendar year
Suryakumar Yadav scored 732 runs in T20Is so far in 21 innings including a century (in England) and 5 half-centuries. Surya scored runs in this format across the globe this year and will be a great prospect for India in the upcoming T20 World Cup in Australia later this year! The record was previously held by Shikhar Dhawan who made 689 runs in 17 innings in the year 2018!
#2: Most T20I sixes in a calendar year
Surya had hit 3 sixes during his 33-ball 50* in the Trivandrum T20I against South Africa and with that, he had taken his tally to 45 sixes this year. He now has the record for the most number of sixes hit in a single calendar year going past Mohammad Rizwan's tally of 42 from last year! More importantly, Surya batted in 5 innings less than what Rizwan took for his record in 2021! Martin Guptill with 41 T20I sixes in 2021 is third on this list.
India are to play two more T20Is in the ongoing South Africa series followed by T20 World Cup in Australia and a 3-match T20I series in New Zealand. If SKY can remain fit and in form, he is set to break many more records in this year with the bat in this shortest format of the game!
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