Riding on fifties from KL Rahul 51 (56) and Suryakumar 50 (33), India won the first T20I against South Africa of the 3-match series at Greenfield Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday (September 28). Opting to field first, Rohit Sharma's Men in Blue displayed a dominant bowling performance courtesy of Arshdeep Singh's 3-wicket over and Deepak Chahar knocking over Temba Bavuma's stumps in the first over of South Africa's innings. However, Proteas all-rounder Keshav Maharaj got his team to a respectable total of 106 runs after his team were 9/5 at one point.
During India's chase of 107, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli departed early on a pitch that aided the pace-bowlers of both sides. KL Rahul was also struggling when Suryakumar Yadav walked in and turned the tables again on the Proteas. After India's win by 8 wicket, fans were not impressed with KL Rahul's slow batting approach in the first T20I and slammed the batter even after he scored a fifty of 56 balls. (IND vs SA 1st T20I scorecard and as it happened HERE)
Checkout the reactions here....
Stop praising kl rahul praise Surya Kumar yadav
— Rohit45 (@KarnarohitMahe2) September 28, 2022
Just saying
21-37 , KL Rahul
21-13. , SKY#INDvsSA #SuryakumarYadav pic.twitter.com/0Jis9uCbUt
— SB (@ItsSBOnly) September 28, 2022
#INDvsSA KL Rahul struggle in every match..... Is not good option to select t20wc.. #ViratKohli #INDvSA #arshdeepsingh #RohitSharma #SanjuSamson #SuryakumarYadav pic.twitter.com/hkdl5DOQ8I
— Kamal malik (@Kamalmalik0123) September 28, 2022
Surya kumar Yadav not only Scored briskly( His 8th 50 in T20Is Came off 33 balls) He awoke KL Rahul from Deep Slumber Rahul too notched up 50 off 56 as Team India
Steamrolled South Africa at
Thiruvananthapuram#SuryakumarYadav#INDvsSA#INDvSA#KLRahul#SAvsIND pic.twitter.com/PxZlCp38As— MTvalluvan (@MTvalluvan) September 28, 2022
#INDvsSA #KLRahul #SuryakumarYadav
India wins the Game
But
KL Rahul tried his very best for the win of South Africa— Rishabh Kashyap (@Rk07Rishabh) September 28, 2022
I think Surya Kumar proved that it's not the "Pitch"
34- 44 KL Rahul
34- 23 SKY#INDvsSA #SuryakumarYadav #KLRahul pic.twitter.com/q9kx4Y5GhW
— SB (@ItsSBOnly) September 28, 2022
Not long ago there was a discussion around who India's best T20 batter is? Suryakumar Yadav or KL Rahul? SKY came in later and continued in the same fashion. KL, on the other hand started way earlier but off late has a very different approach to batting.#CricketTwitter #INDvsSA
— Manoj Dimri (@manoj_dimri) September 28, 2022
#INDvsSA #arshdeepsingh #KLRahul #SuryakumarYadav
Toady Kl Rahul be like pic.twitter.com/Q3LEmnqr5F— Himanshu Tripathi (@Himansh81934200) September 28, 2022
Suryakumar Yadav is a class above. Very special player!
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) September 28, 2022
After 10 over India's score read 47/2. Suryakumar along with KL Rahul played a sensible knock while gathering boundaries at regular intervals. India needed six runs in 24 balls, and Suryakumar brought up his half-century in 33 deliveries. With a help of a six on the fourth delivery of the 17th over KL Rahul also brought up his fifty and took his side home with an eight wickets victory over Proteas.
Brief score: South Africa 106/8 (Keshav Maharaj 41, Aiden Markram 25; Arshdeep Singh 3-32) vs India 110/2 (KL Rahul 51*, Suryakumar Yadav 50*; Kagiso Rabada 1-16) (With ANI inputs)
