South Africa vs India, 1st T20I - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Another abject display of cricket from the hosts has given the visitors the early advantage. Ever been on a Lion safari? The caged and cocooned tourists are always filled with courage because they know they can't be harmed. India have donned that confidence now. The hosts like the predators in the Safari can only gaze at their opponents and do nothing. At least for the moment being. The jamboree moves to Centurion. Ahh, the spinners den so far on the tour. This is Kumar Abhisekh Das whisking off from the commentary box. I had the pleasurable company of Varun Dixit, Rishi Roy, MS Ramakrishnan and Vinod.

- Best figures against SA:
5/06 Umar Gul, Centurion, 2013
5/19 Ahsan Malik, Chittagong, 2014
5/24 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Johannesburg, 2018

- Bhuvi is the first Indian bowler to take five-wickets in each of the three formats (four in Tests and one each in ODIs & T20Is)

- Bhuvneshwar Kumar - second Indian bowler to take five-fer in T20Is after Yuzuvendra Chahal (6/25)

Virat Kohli: The injury was early on in the innings when I went for the single. It was my glute and thankfully not my hammy. You know how I am, I had to bend bit more quickly. Then I felt a little bit more stiffness in my glute and that is why I went off. Not to be stupid and tear a muscle, I decided to go off and get it checked. Very impressive from the boys. It was a good wicket to bat on. Although Rohit did not get many, but the start off 21 off 9 gave us the start. Shikhar was outstanding. It was a total team batting performance. With the ball, Bhuvi showed his experience. We could always bank on Jassi and Unadkat did well as well. This was one of our most balanced performances. We never let the run rate drop less than 10.5. I was thinking maybe 220 at the 16 over mark. The basic message to the team was we are here till 25th. We can't go away before that and have to make the best of every time here.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar: I just wanted to bowl in the right areas. Seeing how they were bowling, we chalked out our plan. We wanted to take pace off the ball. When you do well in tough situations, you enjoy it. I have been bowling that knuckle ball with the seam up since the last one year. Worked on it in the IPL.

Duminy: Very disappointed. In the first six overs with the ball, we were always looking for wickets. We had a plan to bowl short at India. With the bat, in the beginning we never got partnerships. Back to the drawing board. If you don't get the lines right, you are going to go for plenty. We just need to keep working hard and improving. 204 was definitely chaseable but we did not play well. Of course you cannot fault the new guys like Dala, Hendricks in this format. We seniors need to take more responsibility.

Earlier in the evening, an 18-run first over set the tone for India's innings. Rohit and the come back man Raina fell soon but India never lost track of the scoring rate. Dhawan continued his peerless form and was helped along the way by Kohli and Pandey. Though India finished a little light on runs, the score of 200 was always going to be tough for the African team. Virat Kohli had hobbled off during South Africa's innings due to a concern with his ankle. Waiting to hear from him and Duminy.

Once India scaled the peak of 200, even the higher altitudes at the Bullring looked up at the South African batting line up with a sorry look. They found no one and South Africa's misery now change formats. Their bowling toothless and their batting clueless manages another ordinary performance. Set a target of 204, only Hendricks got going and the rest deserted him in search of big hits. India kept chipping away with the wickets and only the 81-run partnership between Behardien and Hendricks lit up a glimmer. But even that was extinguised once the former fell to Chahal's last ball of the spell. Bhuvneshwar's fifer also talked about the improvements he has brought in his T20 skills.

Harsha Bhogle: Was inevitable. This South African side lacks an enforcer. Needed to be Miller but he hasn't grown in recent times

Unadkat to Shamsi, no run, India go 1-0 up with a handsome win by 28 runs. The result ball: short, and the batsman missed the pull pretty easily. Another shellacking for the hosts

Unadkat to Shamsi, no run, slower ball arrived pretty early, the slog attempted very late. The ball bounces its way to the keeper

Tabraiz Shamsi, right handed bat, comes to the crease

Unadkat to Phehlukwayo, out Caught by Chahal!! Unadkat opens his account. The slower delivery outside off and the batsman trying his hand at sending the ball into the orbit, has a crash landing. The ball scooped up off the outer half of the bat and the man at point takes a sitter. Can India bowl the hosts out? Phehlukwayo c Chahal b Unadkat 13(8) [4s-2]

Unadkat to Phehlukwayo, THATS OUT!! Caught!!

Unadkat to Phehlukwayo, 2 runs, short ball, at the helmet, hooked away and the relay work from deep square leg, who put in the dive and from deep mid-wicket, who threw it back restrict the batsmen to a couple

Unadkat to Phehlukwayo, no run, waits an eternity for the slower ball outside off and under edges the ball away to the keeper. 31 off 4. Well. You know the result already

Unadkat to Phehlukwayo, FOUR, yorker but four. The batsman went for the drive and outside edged the ball away to beat the man at short third man. SA will take anything and everything

Jaydev Unadkat [3.0-0-27-0] is back into the attack

Bumrah to Junior Dala, no run, dug out to point. Rohit dives to his left and saves a few runs for his team as the ball was squeezed out. 35 needed off the final over!

Bumrah to Phehlukwayo, 1 run, too full, driven down the ground for a single towards long-off. India doing what they do best at the death, bowling yorkers at a metronomical accuracy