1st T20I: Varun, Ravi claim three-fers after Samson ton as India destroy SA

Spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi spun a web to strangle the middleorder after Sanju Samson hammered a superb century as India thrashed South Africa by 61 runs to take a 10 lead in the series at the Kingsmead Cricket Stadium here on Friday India have never lost a T20I match at this ground and maintained their record with a comprehensive win This is Indias fifth win in six T20Is since the T20 World Cup triumphChakravarthy returning to the T20I side after a gap of three years and fellow T20 specialist spinner Bishnoi bowled superb lines mixed up their deliveries brilliantly to tiedown the South African batters in the middle overs as the hosts chased a massive target of 203In frustration the South African batters tried to hit their way out of trouble but failed to do so as Chakravarthy claimed 325 while Bishnoi bagged 328 as India maintained their dominance over South Africa after defeating the Proteas in the T20 World Cup final a few weeks back South Africa were never in the chase and were bowled out for 141 in 175 overs as India started the series on a winning noteThe Indians came up with a brilliant allround performance after Sanju Samson set them up with a scintillating 50ball 107 becoming the first Indian batter to score centuries in backtoback T20IsIn response South Africa landed in trouble early losing skipper Aiden Markram to Arshdeep Singh on the fourth ball of the innings edging behind to Samson From 81 they fell to 344 with Tristan Stubbs 11 and Ryan Rickelton 21 joining the skipper in the pavilionAlso ReadThat is the greatest challenge for the ageing player Greg Chappell on Rohit Kohlis dry patchHeinrich Klaasen and David Miller shared a 42 run partnership for the fourth wicket but after being hit for a bit six Chakravarthy accounted for the South African bighitter and then claimed the wicket of Miller a ball later to reduce South Africa to 875 Bishnoi too bagged two wickets in an over sending back Patrick Kruger 1 and Andile Simelane 6 in the 12th over as South Africa fell to 937Avesh Khan claimed two wickets as only four South African batters reached double figuresEarlier Sanju Samson continued from where he left off in the third T20I against Bangladesh hammering a second successive century in T20Is as India reached a daunting total of 2028 after being asked to bat firstSamson scored 107 runs in 50 deliveries as he became the first Indian player to hit centuries in backtoback T20I His scintillating innings saw the 29yearold blitz seven boundaries and 10 sixes as he raced to the fastest century by an Indian against the Proteas in a T20I gameWith overcast skies and rain making the playing conditions in favour of the bowlers and Marco Jansen conceding only two runs in the opening over the Indian batters were expected to have a tough time in the middle after the hosts won the toss and elected to bowl firstBut Samson carried his form from the series against Bangladesh and started creating havoc from the second over Both Samson and Abhishek Sharma 7 whacked the ball off Markramrsquos bowling for a boundary each in the second over and the former hit a four and six off Keshav Maharajrsquos opening two balls in the very next overJust when India seemed to be taking the upper hand in the game Gerald Coetzee made the breakthrough with his first delivery A back of the length delivery saw Sharma try to clear longon but failed to hit the middle of the bat and was caught by Markram who made no mistake despite being in a tricky position while running back from midonSkipper Suryakumar Yadav 21 joined Samson who was dealing in boundaries and showed his intent by hitting the ball straight over the head of Coetzee later in the over Both batters continued their aggressive approach and India reached 561 at the end of the Powerplay Desperate to break the partnership which was taking threatening proportion Markram introduced Patrick Kruger in the attack in ninth over Despite bowling five extras and conceding 15 runs Kruger claimed the important wicket of Yadav off the final delivery to reduce India to 902Out came Tilak Varma 33 and the 22yearold along with Samson boosted the evergrowing runrate and took India to the 150run milestone in the 14th overs Samson continued his onslaught and reached his historic century in 47 deliveries in the 15th over but Maharaj got the wicket of Varma later in the same overAttempting to shift gears Samson decided to target Peter Nqabayomzi in the next over and despite hitting the second ball of the over far into the stands departed in the same over A short ball Samson launch into into the sky and Tristian Stubbs pouched an impressive catch right on the boundaryline to send the centurion back to the pavilion Samson and Varma shared a 77run partnership that set up the stage for India to reach a massive totalBrief scoresIndia 2028 in 20 overs Sanju Samson 107 Tilak Varma 33 Gerald Coetzee 337 beat South Africa 141 all out in 175 overs Heinrich Klaasen 25 Gerald Coetzee 23 Varun Chakravarthy 325 Ravi Bishnoi 328 Avesh Khan 228 by 61 runsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever