South Africa registered a seven-wicket victory over India in a high-scoring affair at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match T20I series.
Invited to bat first, the hosts piled up a massive 211/4 in their 20 overs on the back of Ishan Kishan’s 48-ball 76. Shreyas Iyer (36), Hardik Pandya (31*) and stand-in captain Rishabh Pant (29) also chipped in with valuable contributions.
It was a tough outing for the Proteas bowlers but Wayne Parnell returned with the impressive figures of 1 for 32 in his four overs.
In reply, the visitors lost skipper Temba Bavuma (10) cheaply. While Dwaine Pretorius (29) and Quinton de Kock (22) got starts but they failed to kick on and put on a significant score.
When the South African team was struggling at 81/3, David Miller joined Rassie van der Dussen in the middle and the duo tore apart the Indian bowling attack.
In particular, Miller was severe on the Indian bowlers from the outset as he notched up his fifty in just 22 balls. Playing the role of second fiddle, Van der Dussen took on Harshal Patel in the 17th over and smashed him for 22 runs to bring up his half-century in 37 balls.
After completing their respective landmarks, the pair didn’t stop and continued their carnage to return with an unbroken 131-run stand off 63 balls. Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded 22 runs in the 18th over as South Africa reached the 200-run mark and after that, it was only the formalities to be completed.
While Van der Dussen slammed 75* off 46 balls (7 fours and 5 sixes), Miller finished with 64 not out off 31 balls as the tourists overhauled the massive target with five deliveries to spare.
For their dazzling batting display, David Miller and Rassie van der Dussen received rich praises from the cricket fraternity on Twitter
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