India captain Suryakumar Yadav was pleased to see the batting depth save the team against South Africa in the first Twenty20 International in Cuttack on Tuesday and encouraged his teammates to continue on the fearless cricket path.
India scored 175 for six before dismissing South Africa for 74 in 12.3 overs for a 101-run victory thanks to a brilliant, undefeated 28-ball 59 from Hardik Pandya.
“I said at the toss that we were 50:50 but happy to bat. At 48 for 3 and to get 175, was great. We thought we would get to 160, but 175 was unbelievable,” Suryakumar said during the post-match presentation.
Before recovering to score a battling total, India were struggling at 104/5.
“With 7-8 batters, there will be days when the other batters cover it up. We want everyone to be fearless and enjoy their batting,” he added.
The India captain gave the following explanation for Pandya’s omission from the powerplay bowling duties: “I think Arshdeep and Bumrah were the perfect bowlers in the powerplay. Hardik coming back later on, him coming back from injury we had to take care of him.”
After recuperating from a quadricep injury, Pandya returned to international cricket and helped India reach 175 for six by hitting six fours and four sixes.
“I had to back my shots. I realised the wicket had a bit of spice. I had to be a bit gutsy. It was more about timing the ball, not breaking the ball. I was very satisfied with the way I was batting,” he said.
Pandya suffered a left quadriceps injury during the Asia Cup in September, which prevented him from traveling to Australia and playing in the ODIs against South Africa.
“The last six-seven months have been great from my fitness point of view. These last 50 days, being away from loved ones, being at NCA, making sure that all these things are covered. It was satisfying when you come here, the results come like this.”
On not bowling in the powerplay, Pandya said: “As a cricketer, I have never been fussy about what roles I have in the game. I have always been motivated to make sure that it doesn’t matter what Hardik Pandya wants, it is about what India wants.
“The mindset helps me. I have always tried to put my team first. That is my biggest USP and that is what has helped me.”
Aiden Markram, the captain of South Africa, said he was eager to move on fast ahead of the second game but blamed the huge loss on a lack of partnerships.
“Nice to start the way we did. We put some emphasis on starting well, and that was a box we ticked. From a batting point of view, it’s unfortunately something that can happen in this format,” Markram said.
“It’s a pity that it had to happen in the first game, but you have to draw a line through it. It’s a quick turnaround and we’ll give it another crack in a couple of days’ time.” Talking about the wicket, Markram said: “I felt it (the pitch) was quite sticky. That steep tennis-ball bounce and a little bit there with the ball throughout the innings. 175, I suppose we would have taken it.
“We would’ve backed ourselves to chase that down. You can always nitpick and find areas where you feel it could have been better to reduce it by 10-15 runs, but we would have taken that.”
74 was South Africa’s lowest total in T20 Internationals.
“We just needed to be better with the bat, and unfortunately that wasn’t the case. It’s quite hard. Nowadays in T20 cricket, there’s not much time to look around and absorb,” Markram said.
“But the biggest factor was obviously not being able to build partnerships, settling after losing wickets and getting some momentum on our side. So yeah, we’ll have brief conversations tomorrow. You don’t want to dive too deep into things like this. You almost just want to draw a line through it and stick to the positive ways of this format,” he added.
