India vs South Africa highlights, T20 World Cup Warm up Match: IND beat SA by 30 runs in Navi Mumbai

I was really excited for Wednesday. I wanted to open the innings. Batting at number three, I enjoyed that situation, but with the World Cup coming up, no matter what position I bat in, my focus is always on doing my best for the team. I think it’s about staying in the present, watching the ball and playing the shots that are required at that point in time. I’m not putting too much thought or effort into it. I’m just reacting, watching the ball, and playing accordingly, and that seems to be working well for me. Some days you feel really good, some days you don’t. On this particular day, I also have to give credit to the pitch, it was tremendous to bat on, even in the second innings. I trusted the wicket and the bounce. With the World Cup so close, it’s important to be in the mindset that if the ball is there, even if there’s a fielder, you back yourself and go for it. He’s very important for us. He’s not just a batsman anymore, he gives us a few overs, especially when two left-handers are batting. He’s a very good fielder, and the way he’s batting these days, you need someone at number three who can rotate the strike and keep things moving (talking about tilak Varma). There’s always room for improvement. We’ll talk about areas we can bowl to batters and how we can plan better. But on this wicket, I think we did a pretty good job. It wasn’t easy, and we didn’t give away too many sixes. Overall, it was a solid bowling effort, though we’ll sit down and discuss how we can improve further.

Abhishek Sharma picks up the wicket of Marco Jansen here. It was a quicker and flatter one, which Jansen tried to cut and lost his stumps. That is a nice bowling display from Abhishek. He showed he can toss one up when required and also bowl it quicker and flatter when needed.

Abhishek Sharma has picked up the wicket of Jason Smith. It was a tossed-up delivery, which the batter tried to hit out of the park, but got beaten in the flight, and ended up hitting high in the air, and the long-off fielder ran into complete the catch. Marco Jansen has walked into the middle, and he is up and running. India has seen enough of Jansen during the series in Novemeber December last year, and it seems like with the first seven balls he has batted, he is continuing from where he left off on that tour.

David Miller has fallen here. The batter tried to pull the ball and got the under-edge, which Kishan took. That was a pretty good catch from him in the previous game. He did look a bit out of sorts did look a bit out of sorts today. He seems to be a lot more comfortable, and someone who can do the job come Saturday against the USA. It is interesting to see the dip in the form of Kuldeep of late. Although he is picking wickets, he has been a bit expensive through the middle overs in recent times. As per South Africa Tristian Stubbs walks into the middle.

The attendance at the venue for the warm-up match: 43790

It is a good test for the Indian seamers today. We have seen they were put under a bit of pressure in the previous game when Finn Allen was going after the bowling, and today they have Aiden Markram going after them. Harshit Rana, who was not part of the previous game, will have an opportunity to show his skill set as we update intresting move this from Suryakumar Yadav. Usually, we have a spinner come into the attack at this stage of the innings but here we have Arshdeep Singh swapping ends to come into bowl his third over here.

Arshdeep Singh has picked up the first wicket of the evening. He was getting a bit of swing here due to the humdity and South Africa has sent Linde to open the innings, which is hard to understand. He did struggle to cope with the swing and eventually ended up hitting one straight to the mid-on fielder. Hardik Pandya has taken the new ball from the other end, not too much of a change from India. As per South Africa, Aiden Markram has come into the middle to bat alongside Ryan Rickelton. South Africa might not win this game we will get a glimpse of the power they have.

South African bowlers in the end will be happy that it was not as bad as it seemed, as it would be at the halfway mark when India were scoring about 13.5s. The new ball tactic from them might not be fine-tuned yet, but their old ones seem to be alright. The thing of concern will be Anrich Nortje, a bowler with his skill set, who is hard not to pick, but based on the performance today and the conditions that will be on offer, it is not an easy problem to solve for the Proteas. As per India, we have not learned much from the recently concluded New Zealand series. If anything, Tilak Varma is good and ready to go. Do stay with us, we will be right back with the second innings.

Well, what do we know? Nortje has got a six here, and it is Rinku. The batter did struggle tonight through and through and eventually got holed at long-on one of those nights for Rinku. Something to smile about for Nortje. He must be pretty unhappy with how things have gone today. Also a point to note for Aiden Markram the World Cup last time was conducive for pace and him bowling in the middle overs as enforcer did work but in India and Sri Lanka, without variations, Nortje's pace will be quite hittable and unless there are plans to use him with the new ball he might be expensive more often than not instead they can go with an extra spinner.

Suryakumar Yadav has fallen. It was a similar style of dimissal he was dropped early on when they tried to pick one through that square leg region. This time it was Maphaka and a slower one, which Surya toe ended, and the fielder took the catch. Well, it is something Surya will have to make a note of. When he was going through his poor form, that was the area bowlers targeted to get his wicket. It is a tricky one, though becuase it is also one of his productive areas. Rinku Singh is the batter who has walked in after the wicket.

Tilak Varma has looked in blistering touch here. It does seem like he is continuing from where he left off before the break. Well altough it is a warm-up game, the rate at which India is scoring, we might see them pile on another 250+ score here. As we update, Corbin Bosch has dropped a chance here. It was a delivery down the leg-side which Surya casually flicks, and the ball goes into the mid-wicket region; however, Bosch spills the opportunity. For the record, that is the first opportunity South Africa has created here.

Ishan Kishan slammed 50 and said he had enough and walked back. Tilak Varma has walked into the middle at three, wondering if this is the lineup India will go with against the USA later this week at Wankhede in the first opening game. Well, we have to wait until the moment all eyes will be on Tilak, who has missed a lot of cricket of late due to injury. Wonder what the team management and he himself will be looking to get out of this innings. As per Abhishek Sharma, it has been a pretty interesting experience to see he looked a bit scratchy against the quicks of South Africa.

Interesting bowling this from South Africa, they have drifted down the leg-side too often today. It does seem like all three pacers are ideally looking to not give any free room to the batters to swing, but the Indian batters, both of them, are quite good through that fine-leg and square-leg region. It will be a very interesting thing to observe if the South African pacers will deploy the same tactic against different players going forward in the tournament, as not every left-hander or right-hander needs to be as proficient as the wristy Indians we have now.

Although it is a warm-up game, the crowd is buzzing here in Navi Mumbai. It will be very interesting to see how both teams will use their squads tonight. Given the way Suryakumar Yadav sounded at the toss with the bat, we might see them play more or less like a regular game that should make things quite interesting.

Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan(w), Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Harshit Rana, Kuldeep Yadav

Happy to bowl. Nice opportunity tonight, back in India, get accustomed to conditions here. Pretty certain (about the XI). Conditions will dictate one spot. Pretty clear on how we'd like to start.

"Suppose if Bumrah has a bad day, concedes over 50 runs in an important match in the World Cup, how Suryakumar Yadav pulls things back from there, I want to see that. Also, if the other bowlers struggle, what Plan B will Suryakumar Yadav bring on the field, I want to see that as well," he added.

“We will talk of the 1996 World Cup and also of the 2003 World Cup. Teams refused to travel to Sri Lanka. They fortified the matches. In the 2003 World Cup also, teams forfeited matches due to security and travel. But those are venue based problems. Right now. Pakistan and India will be playing in a neutral venue. There is no problem with the venue also. So after all of this. To say I will not play a particular opponent is just not acceptable in many ways. I hope better sense prevails and these matches do take place,” added Ashwin.

“I feel the right combination of experience and youthfulness is very important, but not at the cost of fitness. If you want to compete at the top level, you have to be fit. If you're 35 and fit, then 35 doesn't matter. Performance matters equally for a 24-year-old and a 35-year-old. Treat everyone equally. If people are performing, they'll be there. If they aren't, they won't. People often say the next World Cup is three or four years down the line—well, if a guy isn't fit by then, you can drop him at any point. If he's not performing, you'll drop him anyway. There should be no question regarding any individual when it comes to selection. There is only one criteria: if you’re performing and you’re fit, keep on playing,” said Dhoni.

“Is age a factor? No. Is fitness a factor? Yes, fitness is a factor. Even if you're 22, if you're not fit, you shouldn't be there; there are criteria for playing international cricket,” Dhoni added before continuing. “When it comes to whether it's Rohit, Virat, or other names that will come forward in three, five, or ten years' time, the whole thing is this: just because somebody is in their 30s, it's not for us to decide whether they can play the next World Cup. It's for them to decide. If they keep performing and have the urge to do well for the country, then why not?”

=“The real problem arises in T20 cricket when some of your key players have an 'off day' at the same time someone from the opposition has a brilliant day. Whether that happens in the league stage or the knockout stage, that’s when you need all the luck and prayers you can get. You hope nobody gets injured and that everyone executes the roles they’ve been given. If that happens—and I don’t want to jinx it by saying too much—this is easily one of the most dangerous teams in the world," Dhoni said.

"India is one of the most dangerous teams. They would have already started their preparations, whether batting or bowling, but what’s really needed for a good team? Everything is there. They have the experience—especially in this format—the experience is vast. They have played under pressure. Whoever is playing, and whatever roles they are assigned, they have been in those specific situations for a considerable period of time.”

Hello and welcome to our live blog of India taking on South Africa in Navi Mumbai. For India, it is about careful revision of plans, and for South Africa, it is going to be more about getting accustomed to the surface. It is a good wicket at DY Patil this one in Mumbai so we might see a cracker of game on our hands.