Arshdeep Singh and Deepak Chahar tear apart South Africa top order: Watch

India have locked horns with South Africa at the Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram for the first T20I. Indian pacers Arshdeep Singh and Deepak Chahar were at their absolute best as they removed the entire South African batting top order in the space of just 15 balls. They shared five wickets betweem themselves, with Chahar taking one each in his first and third over and Singh taking all three in his second over. 

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Watch all the five wickets here:

The Proteas have now made some unwanted records to their name. This is their lowest score (9/5) at the fall of 5th wkt. Their previous worst were: 10/5 vs West Indies in Port Elizabeth, 2007 and 31/5 vs India in Durban, 2007.

What makes this display more important is that both the pacers aren’t even in the first choice T20I playing XI for the Men in Blue. Arshdeep Singh came into the squad as Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was rested, and Deepak Chahar was included when Jasprit Bumrah complained of back pain. 

Also Read: Ind vs SA 1st T20I: Deepak Chahar fills in for Jasprit Bumrah, takes a wicket in the first over

This is also India’s fifth instance when they have taken five wickets in the powerplay itself. However, South Africa is the first team they have done so against, twice. This is also the fewest number of balls India needed to take first five wickets in a T20, where the Men in Blue have taken five wickets in 15 balls. Their previous best was against Sri Lanka in 2016, when they took the first five in 31 balls.

It fell on the shoulders of Wayne Parnell and Aiden Markram to rebuild the South African innings. They tried to do so in their 33-run partnership. However, Harshal Patel broke the partnership in the eighth over for lbw. The umpire at first indicated not out, however after skipper Rohit Sharma reviewed, the umpire had to change his decision. 

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After his wicket, Ravichandran Ashwin then bowled a maiden over in the ninth over, putting more pressure on the visitors. Keshav Maharaj hit some boundaries after that, but the pressure piled on as Parnell lost his wicket next to Axar Patel. South Africa were reduced to 68/7 and there were four overs still left for them to play. 

Maharaj consistent boundaries, took South Africa to 83 at the end of 17th over. He hit a six and two four in the penultimate over ot Arshdeep Singh to take the visitors to 100 runs. In the last over, South Africa managed to hit just six runs, setting India a target of 107 runs, after Patel bowled Maharaj in the first ball of the over itself.