India vs South Africa 1st T20I,: Clinical IND bowl out SA for record 74 runs, win by 101 runs

Axar's second ball in the 12th over is slower through the air, Nortje tries a cover drive. He misses and there go his stumps.

South Africa 72/9 in 11.2 overs

But it is all a little bizarre at this point. Dewald Brevis late on the pull second ball of the 11th over, he is caught at extra cover by Suryakumar Yadav. That's all fair, Brevis walks off. The third umpire, though, announces that he is checking for no ball and would you believe it, the replays seem to indicate that Bumrah was overstepping marginally. But then, bizarrely, the third umpire just goes ahead and decides that it is a legitimate delivery. That replay was shown ever so briefly, it was almost like the third umpire just let it play put as a formality. Quite strange but that is 100 T20I wickets for Bumrah.

The South Africans are also not protesting in anyway, it has to be said.

South Africa 68/7 in 10.2 overs

Edged and gone! Second ball of the eighth pitched outside off, he gets some extra bounce. Ferreira tries to cut but misses it entirely, the ball takes the glove and Jitesh rises with the bounce to take a sharp, sharp catch.

Well how about it! Axar follows up for the last over of the powerplay after Chakravarthy's over and he strikes with his very first ball. Length ball, stays low and skids right through Markram, who stayed back and sees his leg stump knocked over.

South Africa 40/3 in 5.1 overs

Big appeal for LBW turned down, SKY takes the review a little hesitantly. It was a good one to take as it turns out.

Second ball duck for De Kock! That is a beauty from Arshdeep, full and swerving away from QDK who tried to meet it with a drive. Gets a nice thick edge and gives Abhishek Sharma at second slip catching practice.

South Africa 0/1 in 0.2 overs

The South African national anthem comes first, followed by India's. After the anthems are done, most of the South Africans stay back on the field and huddle up. Shubman Gill and Abhishek walk out in full gear a minute later to open the innings for India.

Aiden Markram: We're going to bowl first. Expecting conditions to be good here in India. Quite a bit of dew around, might be a constant throughout the game but might get a bit worse later. (Quick turnaround time between formats) It's the way things work, lot of the games end up playing in the mind, need to get yourself in the right frame of mind. Fantastic build-up to the World Cup. From a conditions point of view, it's going to be great. You can’t simulate these, certainly not back in South Africa, so that’s a massive thing. And then obviously testing yourself against one of the better outfits in the world. Looking forward to that, seeing where we are. And we’ve got another couple of months after this to fine-tune things and hopefully be ready for that World Cup.

Suryakumar Yadav: That’s okay. I mean, we were a little confused looking at the wicket. Yesterday it was looking a little more greener, but today we were a little confused. But it’s okay, we’re happy to bat first. It gives a good challenge to put runs on the board and come out here and defend. I mean, see, it (dew factor) becomes a little challenging for the bowlers - you can’t run away from the fact. But going from here on, I think that’s going to remain for a really long time. It has been there for a very long time. So if we keep focusing on that, I think the main job will be in trouble in doing that. But yeah, let’s not think about it and have it as a challenge. We had a good series in Australia. Now we play five T20s against South Africa and then we play against New Zealand, so 15 good T20s. I think it’s good preparation. Same thing what we’ve been doing in the last few series: be fearless, enjoy the game, and be at it for the next three hours. It (selection) is a very good headache to have. But I’ll tell you the guys who are missing out: Sanju Samson, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar and Harshit Rana.

India XI: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav(c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma(w), Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh

Suryakumar said that the guys missing out today are Sanju Samson, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar and Harshit Rana. And yet, and yet, this Indian lineup looks utterly impenetrable. A lot of players in very good form.

Well the captains are out there, SKY and Aiden Markram, along with Ravi Shastri on the mic and match referee Richie Richardson. SKY is in that new jersey that was unveiled a few days back. Pretty neat.

Since the start of 2024, India have won 25 of their 28 T20Is outright when Hardik Pandya has been in their side. Technically the number of wins goes up to 26 if one counts the Super Over victory over Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup this year. Now, it would be wrong to present the presence of Pandya in all these as simply a matter of luck. If anything, it is testimony to just crucial he is for balance in both batting and bowling. When he has not played in this same period, India have nine wins, two losses and two ties.

India don't play a Test series for a long, long time, and there is going to be a whole lot of T20 cricket in the meantime, including the IPL and then the T20 World Cup. And so it will be interesting to see what the real aftermath would be a result as disastrous as a whitewash at home against South Africa, who had only won two Test matches in India this entire century before that. Especially considering India remain an outright favourite to win the T20 World Cup. For South Africa, they are clearly doing a lot of things right. After their historic Test series win at the start of this tour, they pushed India to the brink in a 350-run chase in the first ODI and then equalled the record for the highest succesfull run chase ever in the format against the Indians in the second. They then lost the third ODI rather meekly though, which would be a cause for concern. But imagine if they somehow manage to get something out of this T20I series, a format in which India are right now looking almost unbeatable. That would have some very immediate repurcussions indeed in the Indian camp.

Or at least that is what Suryakumar Yadav indicated in the presser yesterday. Shivam Dube and Hardik Pandya are two of the most potent big-hitters in this Indian team, both of whom excel at batting in the latter stages of the game. All of these are qualities that Rinku Singh possesses and, some may say, is even better at doing than at least one of the other two. But, what Rinku doesn't have is the bowling skills that can allow the captain to give you four full overs. Dube and Pandya are both bona fide T20 fast bowlers, particularly the latter who can cat times be picked on either one of his skills alone. “Dube is an all-rounder. He and Hardik are the all-rounders. So, you can’t compare an all-rounder. The thing is all the batters from 3 to 7 are capable of batting at any position," said SKY.