Virat Kohli remained unbeaten on 72*.
Quinton de Kock’s 52 and Temba Bavuma’s 49 helped South Africa to 149/5 in 20 overs after being put in to bat by Kohli, who won the toss. South Africa has three debutants in Bavuma, Fortuin, and Nortje. Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya made his comeback in the Indian team after a two-month break.
Deepak Chahar picked two wickets, as South Africa couldn’t find any momentum in their innings and there was no acceleration in the death overs. In the chase, Rohit Sharma got out after hitting 2 beautiful sixes, but then Dhawan and Kohli added 61 runs for the second wicket before a brilliant catch from Miller sent Dhawan packing for 40.
Kohli continued to play some amazing shots when it came to playing the pacy Proteas bowlers, with both Rabada and Nortje hitting higher than 145 kmph mark. The shot of the night came in the 17th over, when Rabada bowled a quick delivery on the pads of Kohli, who effortlessly flicked it with a twist of wrists over the square leg boundary.
Here is the video of that amazing shot:
Kohli became the highest run-getter in T20I cricket and scored his 12th fifty in successful chases, the most by any batsman in the format. He is also the only player to average over 50 in all the three international formats.