Pandya’s heroics trump Ngidi’s early strike

Lungi Ngidi claimed three wickets but Hardik Pandya’s big-hitting rescued India as the home side scored 175-6 after being asked to bat first in the first of five T20 Internationals at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Tuesday.

Ngidi (4-0-31-3) had opener Shubman Gill (4) and captain Suryakumar Yadav (12) caught at midoff and mid on respectively miscuing drives on a pitch with surprising pace and bounce and the innings stuttered to 78-4 in the 12th over before Pandya changed its course.

Two legside sixes against Keshav Maharaj (2-0-25-0) in the 13th over saw 16 runs added to the total and another 17 runs came from the 15th bowled by Anrich Nortje in his first game for the Proteas in 17 months.

Pandya hammered 18 from Lutho Sipamla’s final over to ruin his hitherto excellent figures of 3-0-20-2 and the final over of the innings from Nortje (4-0-41-0) went for a dozen with Pandya finishing with six fours and four sixes in his brutal 59* from just 28 balls.

Marco Jansen bowled with wonderful control to concede just 23 from his four overs and also held two fine catches on the fine leg boundary to dismiss Tilak Varma (26) and opener Abhishek Sharma (17).

Captain Aiden Markram’s brave decision to bowl offspinner Donovan Ferreira (2-0-13-1) in the 18th over appeared to pay dividends when he clean bowled Shivam Dube (11) with his first ball but Pandya cleverly manipulated the strike to give the home side a highly competitive total, although the India bowlers will have to contend with a heavy dew.

The home side start the series as strong favourites with a settled and in-form team which has won 26 and lost just four matches since the two countries met in the last T20 World Cup final in Barbados 17 months ago.

South Africa have used over 30 players in the format during that time and have won nine matches and lost 16, including a one-off fixture against Namibia.

INDIA: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (wkt), Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh

SOUTH AFRICA: Quinton de Kock (wkt), Aiden Markram (captain), Tristan Stubbs, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Donovan Ferreira, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Lutho Sipamla, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje