India vs South Africa, T20 World Cup 2026: SA beat IND by 76 runs in Ahmedabad

Marco Jansen closes out the day with two more wickets. What a day he had mixing up his knuckle balls and slower ones on that black soil wicket. First, it was Shivam Dube who hit one straight to fine-leg, and then it was Jasprit Bumrah who drove one and got the outside edge, which fine-leg took. It is a proper shake up to the Indian side, espically interms of batting, they lack that stability which is needed. Suryakumar Yadav did try to hold on that innings but fell in an unfortunate manner, and once that happened there were caught in no man's land with runrate spiking and a partnership needed. Regardless, it was a brilliant performance from South Africa; they deserve the applause. That's it from us folks, do join us for the games tomorrow.

It is getting bad to worse for India here in Ahmedabad. Maharaj has come back into the attack and scalped two more wickets he delivered couple into the pitch and first it was Hardik Pandya who tried to hit the ball into the stands from good lenght in that off-side region was caught on Stubbs and then Rinku Singh too was offered a good lenght ball which he too found the same fielder and as we update Arshdeep Singh too has perished he charged down the wicket trying to hit the ball and ended up giving to guess who? Stubbs again.

India needs a partnership here between Hardik and Dube, yes, the run-rate is spiking up pretty quickly, but both of them can make it up if they do manage to still the 18th over of the innings. But the important thing is to stay in the middle and not to take too many risks. Yes, by all means, if the ball is there to hit, both should hit, but they cannot afford to play or do anything silly. Suryakumar Yadav, who was the last wicket to fall, played the shot too early and ended up toe-ending it to mid-wicket. The wicket does seem to get a bit slower here.

That is a pretty ordinary power play for India, or let's say that was very good bowling from South Africa. They have planned well, and execution has been top-notch. Indian batters continued to bat the way they usually do, trying to stamp their authority, but South Africa did their homework and came up with plans. Suryakumar Yadav and Washington Sundar, who are in the middle, need to build a partnership; they have to do the same thing which David Miller and Dewald Brevis did in the first innings here.

Venkata Krishna B: Right through the tournament a bad habit has crept into this Indian batting line-up. Losing wickets early is now turning into a migraine with opponents using the off-spinners as an early match-up. These bowlers offer no mystery, but do the basics enough — take the ball away from left-handers. In the chase it was South African captain, spinner Aiden Markram's turn to inflict damage. He kept it straight to Ishan Kishan who's been in red-hot form, denying the form batter any sort of width and let the batsman take the risk. Ishan Kishan obliged straightaway, and was out for a duck this time. Tilak Varma would follow soon, gone to Marco Jansen but it was the offspinner who struck the first blow, just as Salman Agha, Saim Ayub, Aryan Dutt and Gerhard Erasmus.

Ishan Kishan has fallen for a duck here. Skipper Aiden Markram took the new ball; it was an undercutter; those deliveries troubled the batters on the black soil wicket. Kishan did play his shot early, and the ball went in the air, and Ryan Rickelton completed the catch. Big blow that for India. Sharp captaincy that was from Aiden Markram. As we update, India lost their second batter here already. Tilak danced down the track to hit Jansen, who got the outside edge, which the keeper took, and everyone gave it out, but Varma went upstairs only to find a spike on the ultra edge. India is in huge trouble here.

2nd over: 1 0 1 4 W 0

4th over: 0 1 0 0 0 W

17th over: 1 1 1 0 1 1

19th over: 1 1 1 0 W 0

Bumrah has got Bosch here. It was a yorker, and the batter squeezed well and ended up giving a catch to Bumrah. The bowler was sure he got the wicket but umpire thought it was a bump ball and was sent upstairs on the replay it showed the ball was hit straight into the hands.

This is extremly clever tactic from South Africa to go after the wrist spinner here. They knew he was going to bowl in the good length region consistently, and they picked the ball from the length and sat back and hit him all around the park. Well, there it is, as we update, Chakarvarthy has picked up Miller. That is clever bowling, he usually keeps his delivery at the stumps, does Varun that was thrown wide, and Miller did seem to be taken aback, but still went with the shot, and ended up getting caught on the boundary.

David Miller has slammed a half-century here. Brilliant innings from the left-hander. He came into bat when South Africa was in a bit of trouble, and he showed the experience he has had on this wicket. He slammed three sixes and six boundaries in this innings and is still going. He has enough time to make a century here, and he is quite capable of delivering knocks of such magnitude we have seen it numerous times for the franchises he plays for and the South African side. Indians have picked up the wicket but they cannot take it lightly have to keep picking them.

Venkata Krishna B: Perhaps the weight of not taking South Africa home against India still lingering on his shoulders, David Miller did the heavy lifting in the middle-overs as the sides faced off in the next edition. The designated finisher, he was still inside the powerplay with three top order South African wickets falling on 10, 12 and 20, and instead of consolidating on arrival, he launched a stunning assault. Not a stranger to this ground where commentators dub him Killer Miller in their dramatic 'Keelurr Meelurr' twang, the champion batter swung through the line, hitting a flurry of boundaries before a ‘if it is in the arc, it is out of the park’ written all over the six he hit off Varun Chakaravarthy. SA, for the first time were up and running thanks to Miller.

Miller has got off to a quick start here. He plays for this franchise Gujarat Titans, in the Indian Premier League, and he will know these conditions. It is a bit difficult to start on this wicket, but once in, it is one of those grounds where the sixes just keep coming, and Miller has one to his name, and if he stays longer, that number will increase. As per the bowling, Suryakumar Yadav's challenges might start now; the wicket will get better and better from here on for batting, and the onus is on him to bring something to challenge the batters with his bowling changes and field placements.

Vinayakk M: Not one to celebrate his wickets too much these days, Jasprit Bumrah is what you'd describe as equanimous. But he was, as Shaun Pollock noted immediately on air, unhappy when he gave Quinton de Kock a late Christmas gift off the fourth ball he bowled. A rare poor delivery – a rank full toss outside off stump – was put away through cover-point for four. Bumrah went back to the top of his mark with annoyance writ large on his face. The next delivery, however, couldn't have been more perfect. A length ball from around the stumps, angling in ever so slightly, and went through de Kock's swing-and-miss. The best part was yet to come. The ball just trimmed the top of the bail between the middle and leg stump. The rest of the stumps barely moved, and that explained why de Kock was the last to realise he was done in. He blinked. Bumrah just put his arms up in the air with a smile on his face as de Kock glanced behind him and threw his head back in frustration.

Jasprit Bumrah has scalped another one here it was a slower one into the surface which Ryan Rickelton had no clue about and the batter tried to drive on the up ended up giving the catch to mid-off fielder. That was a fabulous delivery from Bumrah through the run-up, he had no hint that he was going to bowl that, but in the split second, he altered his wrist position and the tackiness present in the wicket did the rest for him. That slower one could only come from the muscle memory of playing on wickets like this in Indian conditions from Bumrah fabalous thinking from him. Master at work here.

We are done with the opening over it was a bit of a sedate start for the South Africans. Arshdeep Singh has managed to swing the ball into the left-hander instead of taking away from him, which was a smart piece of bowling to start with. The thing which would bring a smile to his face is the fact that there is some swing on offer. Generally, in the first innings, pitches here in Ahmedabad tend to start a bit tackily, and as the evening goes on, the wicket does get better for batting. As we update, Jasprit Bumrah has come into the attack from the other end.

It’s Ahmedabad, and it’s a nice, pleasant spring evening here. Temperatures are in the low 30s-32 to be exact - with not much humidity, and at this time of year it’s normally ideal for playing cricket. The ground dimensions are 72 meters straight down the ground, 67 one side and 64 the other, so if you want to play the ramps and target the shorter boundary, that’s the way to go. It’s pitch number five, the same surface used when South Africa played India here in December - India made 236 and South Africa replied with 210. If you look at the numbers, it’s the highest-scoring surface in India with an average first-innings score of 192, so you’d say it’s a bit of a belter. Having had a close look, it seems to have a little less grass than in the other games, it’s completely black soil with no red involved whatsoever, and there are more cracks visible on this surface. I think it’s going to be a good pitch throughout, but with the river so close to the ground, the only concern is whether dew could play a part later on - so there could well be an advantage to batting second.

We are going to bat first. It looks like a really good wicket - a lot drier than the previous one we came across here - so we’re not expecting that early tackiness. We think it’s going to be a good surface throughout, and hopefully we can put a nice big score on the board. The boys are in good touch, which is always a blessing. We’re not taking that for granted, but it’s a good space to be in at the moment. The guys have been putting in a lot of work behind the scenes to maintain that form and confidence. We’ve been fortunate to play a couple of games here before. It’s a different wicket this time - black soil - but generally this is a high-scoring ground and an entertaining venue. As players, that’s what you look forward to being part of, and hopefully tonight is no different. From the previous game, we’ve made four changes to go back to our usual XI - Keshav (Maharaj) comes back in, Lungi (Ngidi) comes back in, Marco (Jansen) comes back in, and David (Miller) comes back in as well.”

Aiden Markram(c), Quinton de Kock(w), Ryan Rickelton, Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Marco Jansen, Corbin Bosch, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi

“I have not seen a rough in the first over of a T20 game. Whether they put an off-spinner or left-arm spinner, we have played so much cricket, whether a left-hander or right-hander. Our lefties have played with new balls so many times. So, everyone has their own game plan of how to play and who to play,” he pointed out.

“You mean I should play him in Abhishek's place?” he shot back. At No 3, maybe? “You mean, I should make him play for Tilak? It's going well in power play. We're making 50 - 40 runs. That's normal cricket,” he said.

“When he scores a run, you have seen what happens. It happens, it's a team sport, it keeps going on. Now the team has a requirement that the boy should play with his identity. So he is trying to play. If it happens, then it's fine; if it doesn't, then we are there to cover,” he said.

“I have told him, the team management has told him that he has to bat that way. If one wicket is down, then he definitely can go and have his own game in the powerplay. But as soon as two wickets are down, then he has to take a little bit of a backseat, get a partnership again, get to the 10th over and then we have enough firepower to continue and take on the bowling,” he said. “I don't have any concern regarding him. He has been delivering for India at No. 3 really well, and I am very confident that he will do it better,” he added.

In that match in Barbados, Indian bowlers, especially Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh kept calm in the end as India snatched victory from the jaws of defeat as they ended their 11-year ICC trophy drought and won the T20 World Cup for the second time in their history by beating South Africa by 7 runs. Heinrich Klaasen was looking ominous with a quickfire 52 before Pandya sent him back. David Miller followed, courtesy of a brilliant catch by Suryakumar Yadav, also off Pandya as South Africa could not recover.

"In T20 cricket, that is a dangerous thing to do, where a senior player or captain feels like he has got to stay in, especially while batting first. When you are setting targets of 200 plus, if you have somebody in the top four who believes that he is the guy who has got to control the innings and make sure he is the one who will take India to a certain score, that is a very dangerous tactic. No batter must think like that. So, Surya must be careful about that," Manjrekar explained.

"There is something that I am seeing in Suryakumar Yadav which I'm not liking too much. 77-6, India against USA, at the Wankhede, and Suryakumar Yadav had to change his game, which he did brilliantly. Just slowed down a little bit, and then exploded, and got a great score, player of the match, and everything," Manjrekar said on his Instagram page.

"The person Shivam Dube is same. He's quiet, calm. He enjoys playing, he enjoys hitting sixes. There's something that's changed, that's my mindset. I started bowling." He clearly relishes both challenges, and some might say the extra pressure is helping his batting, while he gets thinking as a bowler.

"It felt really amazing when people started chanting my name. I really enjoyed it. My first 50 in T20 World Cup. It's very special. It has come at an important time. So I enjoyed it," he said.

“He has a wonderful wrist position. He bowls brilliantly with the new ball in the Powerplay, does the same in the middle [period of the innings] and his death bowling is exceptional.”

"Asli tournament next matche...next match se chaalu ho raha hai... Toh iske liye ready hona hai... Aur dogfight is very important (The real tournament starts from South Africa match. So the team needed to be ready for it. And dogfights are very important)," Chakaravarthy told bcci dot tv.

"We've played a day game and a night game, yeah, so kind of understand the conditions. But I'm saying I don't think it means too much because the Indian teams played here, through IPLs and a lot of them have played their whole career, so I don't think it plays that much of a difference at the end of the day,"

Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh.

Hello and welcome to our live blog of the India vs South Africa match. It is going to be a cracking contest, isn't it? The wicket has been flat at Ahmedabad in this tournament thus far, and if it were to be the same today, given the power hitting that is available in both sides, we might have a cracking contest on our hands. Sit back, enjoy, and relax. Stay with us for all the live updates.