South Africa’s skipper Aiden Markram expressed his disappointment in his team’s performance after a shocking collapse in the opening T20I match against India. The Proteas managed to stop India at the score of 175 on a batting friendly surface of Barabati Stadium, but they could not chase the target and were bundled out at a mere score of 74 – which is their lowest ever in T20I cricket.
Even their skipper Markram also scored just 14 runs off 14 balls and in the post-match presentation he highlighted that the batting order failed to perform under pressure. But he did praise his bowlers for getting early breakthroughs and put India under pressure. Markram highlighted the inability in his team to built partnerships was the key issue.
“Yeah, I think there were some good signs. It was a ball-in-the-field. Nice to start the way we did. We put some emphasis on starting well, and that was a box we ticked, so we can be proud of that. From a batting point of view, it’s unfortunately something that can happen in this format. It’s a pity that it had to happen in the first game, but you have to draw a line through it. It’s a quick turnaround and we’ll give it another crack in a couple of days’ time” Aiden Markram said after India’s win.
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“But the biggest factor was obviously not being able to build partnerships, settling after losing wickets and getting some momentum on our side. So yeah, we’ll have brief conversations tomorrow. You don’t want to dive too deep into things like this. You almost just want to draw a line through it and stick to the positive ways of this format,” Markram also said.
In the match India’s star all-rounder Hardik Pandya returned from injury and he wrecked havoc by scoring an unbeaten half-century and he even took one wicket. India were strong enough to register win by 101 runs and the Men in Blue now lead the series by 1-0.
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India’s bowling attack was also top-notch with Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy and Axar Patel all of them taking two wickets each. Pandya’s wicket was extremely important as he dismissed David Miller – one of the strongest batter of South Africa.
