Kolkata: This night didn’t belong to Shubman Gill or Suryakumar Yadav, nor was it for Abhishek Sharma even though he did take two good catches at slip. Arshdeep Singh came close with his impeccable lengths, getting two wickets in his first two overs.
Hardik Pandya plays a shot during the first T20I against South Africa at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on Tuesday. (AFP)
Hello Hardik Pandya, good to have you back.
That 42-ball 77 for Baroda last week set up some anticipation alright. And Pandya proved that it was no fluke by blazing his way to an unbeaten 28-ball 59 that propelled India to 175/6 in the first T20I against South Africa at Cuttack on Tuesday. To back that up with a first ball wobble-seam dismissal of David Miller was just the kind of stuff you sign up for when the Pandya show is on.
The umpire wasn’t sure, though Miller looking back at the wicketkeeper was a giveaway that he had edged the ball. There were two noises, and replays revealed a thick inside edge before the ball almost died on Jitesh Sharma who had to dive forward to complete the catch. The ball was skidding, but this one surprised Miller with its movement and slower pace. Just the sort of delivery that can derail an innings altogether, as South Africa crashed to a 101-run defeat after being bowled out for only 74.
No one crossed 22, and only four batters entered double figures. This after doing the sensible thing and electing to chase on a ground known for its dew factor. Jasprit Bumrah battled that to take 2/17 and enter the 100-wicket club in T20Is, Varun Chakravarthy impressed again with 2/19, as did Axar Patel who took 2/7, Aiden Markram being one of his victims. Dewald Brevis resisted with a 14-ball 22 but it was one-way traffic otherwise.
Considering they were 40/2 after the Powerplay—India’s lowest score since the 2024 T20 World Cup win—and 71/3 at the halfway stage, it won’t be inaccurate to say Pandya’s knock pretty much salvaged an innings that didn’t have a single 40-run stand.
The intent, of course, wasn’t missing. Shubman Gill slashed at a wide Lungi Ngidi ball to get a streaky boundary before chipping it to Marco Jansen slightly deep of mid off. Suryakumar played six dots out of eight balls before unshackling himself by whipping Ngidi off his hip for a four and sending the ball over deep square-leg for a six. That brief mayhem was snapped with a good length delivery that the India captain chipped to Aiden Markram at mid-on.
By then, Abhishek had already started doing his thing—pulling Jansen over deep midwicket for a six before carting Lutho Sipamla for two boundaries in the fifth over. He too fell just after the Powerplay, and that’s when the slowdown started even though Tilak Varma had been sent in to keep the run rate up.
He milked Jansen for two boundaries before clobbering Anrich Nortje over deep square leg with an 89m six. Between those boundary shots however, Varma failed to rotate the strike enough. He fell on the cusp of the 13th over after a laboured 32-ball 26, with India desperately needing a shot in the arm.
In walked Pandya, opening his account by steering Ngidi to the off side. Keshav Maharaj was brought in next over, presumably to induce the false shot with the ball that would turn away. He floated in the ball, arming it with a lot of revolutions but Pandya was on it, smoking it over deep mid-wicket for an almighty six by putting everything behind it.
Two balls later Maharaj tried to tease again with a looped in ball, but Pandya wasn’t to be fooled. Clearing his front foot and coming down on the ball with a trademark high backlift, Pandya sent the ball over long-on for another six.
A four through deep third man boundary is the kind of hitting you generally see these days when batters throw the kitchen sink at balls getting away from them. Pandya has long lever-like hands, and so that shot selection isn’t surprising. Where it got bewildering is how he literally gave the charge to a 150 kph clocking Nortje and drilled him past mid-off at blistering pace. Crazy was the forehand smash off Jansen, converting a short of a length ball into a foregone conclusion for the fielder chasing the ball across deep square leg. Insane though was the six Pandya hit to bring up his fifty.
Nortje had just bowled a short and wide delivery, prompting a massive swing and a miss from Pandya. Next delivery, Pandya steadied himself and waited for the ball to come to him. Again short and outside off, predictably at searing pace, this was a ball that he couldn’t get on top off. So Pandya got underneath it, going very late, slicing it over third man for a blinding six.
It’s worth mentioning here that this was Pandya’s fourth six out of the nine in India’s innings, the remaining five hit by five batters. Maybe Pandya was connecting it too well, maybe the surface wasn’t kind to others. The bowlers, though, have been impeccable, making it just the kind of show India would have wanted an early rerun of in the buildup to the T20 World Cup.
