India Beat South Africa by 101 Runs; Hardik’s 59 Rescues Team After Top-Order Collapse

In the first match of the T20 series, on Tuesday, the Indian team defeated South Africa by 101 runs in Cuttack. The play had started badly for Team India as 5 wickets fell for 104 runs. Hardik Pandya then stitched partnerships with Shivam Dubey, Axar Patel, and Jitesh Sharma and pulled up the team to 175. Pandya scored 59 runs in 28 balls, hitting 4 sixes and 6 fours. In this match also, the Indian team lost the toss, and Surya made a surprise decision. Sanju Samson was dropped from the playing XI.

This move by Surya and the team management turned out to be wrong, and Shubman Gill again disappointed the fans and went back to the pavilion. Social media also raised voices against this decision. After the match, Jitesh Sharma expressed his opinion on the decision to leave Sanju out of the playing eleven, stating that decisions are made for the team's benefit.

Jitesh Sharma said, "To be honest, he (Sanju Samson) is like an elder brother to me. Healthy competition brings out your talent. It's also good for the team. This Indian team has a lot of talent. We share a lot of experiences with each other. Whenever I'm wicketkeeping or batting, he helps me a lot."

In this match, the Indian team, batting first, scored 175 runs for the loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs. Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav failed once, while Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Verma, and Axar Patel, despite a good start, failed to score big. Pandya scored 59 runs to take his team past 170. In reply, South Africa collapsed for just 74 runs, their lowest total against India in T20Is. With this win, Team India took a 1-0 lead in the five-match series.