Courtesy: CSA/X
In pursuit of the big target of 203 runs against India in the first T20I of the four-match series, Aiden Markram, the captain of South Africa lost his wicket in the first over of the team’s innings off the bowling of Arshdeep Singh. At the Kingsmead in Durban, Markram struck two crisp boundaries versus Arshdeep before he got nicked off through to the wicket-keeper Sanju Samson, which led to a plethora of criticism for the South African captain on the social media platform X.
For the unversed, India scored a massive total of 202/8 in their allotted 20 overs with a hundred from Sanju Samson after being put into bat first by South African captain Aiden Markram. In the run chase, the right-handed batter managed to hit two beautiful fours towards the cover region, but on his third try, he could only find the safe hands of Sanju Samson behind the stumps on the bowling of Arshdeep Singh, to walk back to the pavilion with just 8 off 4 to his name.
South Africa got reduced to 44/3 in sixth over in pursuit of 203-run target
Shortly after, Avesh Khan got the in-form Tristan Stubbs for 11 off 11, to put India in a strong position while defending a total in excess of 200 runs. For the South Africans, it will be vital for the likes of Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller to play a big role in the run chase, to give them the best chance of overhauling the Indian total at the Kingsmead in Durban after being reduced to 44/3 in the sixth over, as of this writing.
Below are some of the fan reactions after Arshdeep Singh dismissed Aiden Markram early in the innings in the first T20I:
Here are the playing XIs of South Africa and India for the first T20I at the Kingsmead in Durban:
South Africa: Ryan Rickelton (wk), Aiden Markram (c), Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen, David Miller, Partrick Kruger, Marco Jansen, Andile Simelane, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Nqabayomzi Peter
India: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Varun Chakravarthy
