After a stunning 2-1 series win against Australia at home, the Indian cricket team kickstarted the 3-match T20I series in a blockbuster way by defeating South Africa by 8 wickets. India pacers Deepak Chahar and Arshdeep Singh made the new ball talk as they ran through the South Africa batters in the series opener at Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday.
After India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to put the visitors in, Chahar and Arshdeep gave a solid start to their team. Arshdeep and Chahar reduced the visitors to just nine runs for the loss of five wickets. Arshdeep, who was making a comeback after a breather, turned out to be the pick of the bowlers for the Indian side.
First, it was Deepak Chahar who knocked over the Proteas skipper stumps and in the second over. Following this, Arshdeep Singh took charge and removed 3 batters including Quinton de Kock 1 (4), David Miller 0 (1), and Rilee Rossouw 0 (1). Deepak Chahar was brought again and he didn’t disappoint this time as well. He dismissed Tristan Stubbs 0 (1) for a golden duck.
Arshdeep ended the game with stunning figures of 4-0-32-3 and was awarded the Man of the Match award for his brilliant performance. Receiving his MOM award for the first time, Arshdeep Singh was very excited and he didn’t shy away from expressing his emotions. He said: “Have been thinking about the Man of the Match speech and was excited.”
Talking about his performance in the series opener, he said: “There was a lot of help from the surface, and DC (Deepak Chahar) bhai set the tone and I just wanted to execute the plans. Loved the wicket of David Miller, he was expecting the outswinger, but I got that to swing in. So that was great. [Death overs] We wanted to take his [Keshav Maharaj] wicket, but he batted well. We could have had a different plan but we won the match, and that’s what matters. Have trained hard at the NCA, and want to perform well going forward.”
