Johannesburg,. After unbeaten centuries from Sanju Samson and Tilak Verma, India defeated host South Africa by 135 runs in a recordbreaking performance at The Wanderers Stadium here on Friday with the help of leftarm fast bowler Arshdeep Singh's brilliant three wickets. With this, India also won the fourmatch series by 31. Of the 26 T20 matches played this year, India has won 24.
Arshdeep Singh took three wickets for 20 runs and devastated South Africa's top order.
Earlier, on the basis of Samson's unbeaten 109 runs in 56 balls and Tilak Verma's unbeaten 120 runs in just 47 balls, India had made a huge score of 2831 runs in 20 overs. Tilak Verma became the second Indian to score centuries in two consecutive T20 Internationals.
South Africa had a bad start while chasing the target. Four wickets had fallen for 10 runs in the first three overs. Arshdeep took three wickets in his first two overs. He took two wickets on consecutive balls in the third over. He clean bowled Reza Hendricks (0) on the third ball of his first over and then sent back Aiden Markram (8) and Heinrich Klaasen (0) in his second over. However, David Miller saved him from getting a hattrick.
Hardik Pandya gave India its fourth success by dismissing Ryan Rickelton (1).
There was a strong partnership of 86 runs for the fifth wicket. Tristian Stubbs scored 43 runs in 29 balls with the help of three fours and two sixes while Miller gave some hope to the hosts by scoring 36 runs in 27 balls.
Varun Chakraborty, who performed brilliantly in the series, broke the partnership by dismissing Miller.
Chakraborty took two wickets for 42 runs and Akshar Patel took two wickets for six runs.
The entire South African team was out for 148 runs in 18.2 overs.
Samson and Tilak Verma made a place in the record books by scoring two consecutive centuries. Samson became the first Indian batsman to score three centuries in T20.
Earlier, captain Surya Kumar Yadav won the toss and decided to bat first. On the basis of opener Sanju Samson and Tilak Verma's unbeaten partnership of 210 runs, India scored a massive score of 2831, which is the highest score till date at the Wanderers Stadium.
This is India's second highest score in T20 against any team. At the same time, this is also the biggest partnership from India in T20 International.
After winning the toss for the first time in the series, Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav chose to bat. Sanju Samson (109 not out) along with Abhishek Sharma (36) added 73 runs for the first wicket in 5.5 overs. He was caught by wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen on the ball of Lutho Sipamla. After this the South African bowlers did not get any success. Sharma hit four sixes and two fours in his innings of 18 balls.
After this, Samson, along with Tilak Verma (120 not out), thrashed all the South African bowlers. Samson hit nine sixes and six fours in his 109 unbeaten runs in 56 balls. Out of 47 balls, Verma sent 10 through the air and nine on the ground outside the boundary.
A total of 23 sixes and 17 fours were hit from India's side. Thus, 206 runs were scored only through boundaries. This is a record of sixes by India in any T20 match. Earlier on October 12 this year in Hyderabad, India had scored 297 runs, in which 22 sixes and 25 fours were hit.
The score of 283 against South Africa is India's highest score and second highest score against any team.
South Africa used seven bowlers to break the SamsonVerma pair, but was unsuccessful.
India scored 731 in six overs of powerplay. India's 100 runs were scored in 8.3 overs and 200 runs were scored in 14.1 overs.
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Image Credit: KhasKhabar.