South Africa vs India, 1st T20I at Durban, SA vs IND, Nov 08 2024 - Match Result

9:05pm That will be all from us for today. We hope you enjoyed our coverage and we will be back with more T20I action from this series on Sunday, as South Africa look to level the series. Until then, this is goodbye from Ranjith, Sudeep and myself. Take care, folks!

Sanju Samson, Player of the Match: Really enjoying my time in the middle. Have been playing well so wanted to utilize my form. (On what is going right) It is always the intent, we have been talking about keeping the team ahead of yourself. Once you play those first couple of balls, you are looking to find those boundary shots, which makes things easy. Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. Happy it did (pay off) today. Knowing the home advantage they (South Africa) have, they are a really gun side, so important for us to start off with a win.

Suryakumar Yadav, India captain: We are following the same things, we have not changed our brand of cricket. (On Samson) Very happy with the innings. The amount of hard work that he has put in over the last few years, doing those boring things again and again, he is reaping the fruits (now). He is putting the team first, even when he was in the 90s, he was looking to hit fours and sixes. That is what separates him. I wanted to pick crucial wickets at the time, and it was important to get them (Klaasen and Miller) out. With the ground and the wind, they are dangerous and the way they (Bishnoi and Chakravarthy) delivered, it was great. Really enjoying (captaincy). The boys are making things easier (for me). The way they have been showing that fearless attitude, enjoying each other's company, on and off the field, it makes my job very easy. (On if their batting at the death today concerns him) The brand of cricket we are playing, we just want to be fearless. Even if we lose a few wickets, we want to bat with one motto. It is a T20 game, we know have 20 overs but if we can get 200 in 17 overs, then why not.

Aiden Markram, South Africa captain: (On the decision at the toss) Not so much about the toss. Both new balls did a little bit. Some extra bounce and a bit of nip. It was consistent throughout both innings. Once the new ball wore off, it was a really good wicket. We wanted to get off to a better start (with the bat) and that is where we lost the game. Sanju played incredibly well, put our bowlers under pressure. So, probably plans to negate that. When a guy is striking like that, it is pretty hard to stop him and you have to take your hat off. (On their death-bowling) We had a couple of good meetings with the guys who will be bowling at the death. Nice to get it right. Incredibly proud (of what they did at the death) and hopefully we can take that forward, it was a really big positive (for us). Each guy, from an individual point of view, will understand how to do better. We have been hitting a lot of balls in the nets and more about the approach (when we play next).

8:42pm A clinical bowling performance by India. Arshdeep set the tone early, removing Markram. Avesh then dismissed Stubbs before Chakravarthy took out Rickelton, leaving South Africa three down inside the powerplay. Klaasen and Miller, like they often do, tried to restructure the innings but both fell to Chakravarthy in the 12th over and that signaled the beginning of the end. Bishnoi was also quite impressive, with his tidy start forcing Klaasen and Miller to go after Chakravarthy.

South Africa, in contrast, were trying to cling on to moments. None of their batters managed more than 25, despite six of them getting into double-digits. And on a night when Samson tore them apart courtesy a sparkling and sustained power-hitting display, that proved to be the difference, especially on a track that was conducive to stroke-making and on a ground where sixes were commonplace.

Here's Avesh. South Africa, for what it is worth, need 68 off 18

Peter is the last batter in. Around the wicket

Murali: "What if SA wins from here!?" -- If they do, we'd have witnessed something truly special...

Arshdeep again

Bot10: "Coetzee has doubled his T20I sixes total today" -- His ball-striking has been quite clean too...

Pandya back for his third. Maharaj is the new batter in, although he is at the non-striker's end for now