Kohli hit his 15th half-century in chases in T20Is- the most by any batsman.
South Africa gave T20I debuts to Temba Bavuma, Bjorn Fortuin, and Anrich Nortje. Kohli meanwhile opted to go into the game with as many as four all-rounders in the playing XI leaving out the likes of KL Rahul, Khaleel Ahmed, and Manish Pandey.
South Africa batted first after losing the toss and thanks to Quinton de Kock’s 52 and debutant Temba Bavuma’s 49 helped the team reach 149/5 after Saini was hit for two sixes by Phehlukwayo and Pretorius. It was thanks to some brilliant bowling by Deepak Chahar, who picked 2/22, while Saini, Jadeja, and Hardik picked one wicket each.
Virat Kohli continued his merry way as he scored a brilliant 72* in 52 balls with 4 fours and 3 sixes and along with Shreyas Iyer's 11*, took India to a convincing win by 7 wickets, as India ended on 151/3 in 19 overs. For South Africa, Phehlukwayo, Shamsi and Fortuin were the wicket-takers.
Cricket fraternity was left in awe of the chase master Kohli, who shepherded the Indian team to a brilliant victory and took to Twitter to laud him.
Here are some of the tweets: