David Warner

On the eve of the match, captain Temba Bavuma had said to reporters that the pitch had become better to bat as the game progressed, as seen from their intra-squad practice match. On match day, despite occasional fumbles and asking rate touching either 12 or 13, Pretorius, Miller and van der Dussen ensured that South Africa hunted down 212 with five balls to spare.

Although India did win the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, they have not been able to repeat the feat ever since. The problem that seems to surface is in the selection of the side. The confusion that arises is whether to play the tried-and-tested players or ones who are relatively less experienced. In the turmoil of this thought process, the Indian selectors fail to get the right combination in place.

After Ishan Kishan's 76 and finishing touches from captain Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya powered India to 211/4, South Africa were in trouble at 81/3 in 8.4 overs, despite a whirlwind Dwaine Pretorius cameo in power-play. That's when Miller and van der Dussen joined forces to forge an unbroken stand, enough for the visitors to record their highest chase in T20Is and put an end to India's 12-match winning streak in the format.

Veteran wicket keeper Matthew Wade (26 not out) handled the immense pressure of batting with the tail to secure victory with 13 balls to spare. Chasing a low total of 125 runs for win, openers Aaron Finch and David Warner came out intent on powering Australia to victory as quickly as possible. However, Hasaranga weaved some spin magic to turn the tables.

The first match of the series will act as a platform for the hosts to convert their 12-0 winning streak in T20Is into 13, a record in the format. But the series won't be a stroll in the park for the KL Rahul-led side, which is missing players like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ravindra Jadeja, Suryakumar Yadav and Deepak Chahar.

BCCI has allowed full capacity in stadiums for the India-South Africa T20I series which gets underway on June 9 here. The DDCA president said the upcoming first T20I is very close to his heart and asserted that adequate measures will be taken to stage the game successfully. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic had stopped all the sporting activities in March 2020 and as Delhi gears up to host the first T20I, Rohan Jaitley feels it is an interesting phase in the city's cricket.

Chasing a target of 191 runs for victory, but Velocity were restricted to 174 for nine in 20 overs. Velocity will now face Supernovas in the final on Saturday. Trailblazers (-0.825), Supernovas (+0.912) and Velocity (-0.022) ended with two points each but the top two teams made it to the final as they had better net run-rate than the defending champions.

Chasing a target of 151 runs, Shafali played a solid start at the top while Wolvaardt finished off the chase with ease. Put into bat first, Supernovas were off to a horrible start as they slipped to 18 for 3 in the opening four overs. Priya Punia fell to Kate Cross, who also accounted for Harleen Deol while Deandra Dottin too failed to get going and was the third to fall on the bowling off Deepti Sharma as Supernovas were left on shaky ground.

Pandya has been in smashing form in IPL 2022, guiding Gujarat Titans to the top of the table and contributing robustly with the bat and ball. With his back injury, which prevented him from playing most of last year, now history, the 28-year-old Pandya looks set to ride on his form to led the side for the series beginning at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on June 9.

After the end of IPL 2022, India will be back on the international cricket circuit with the five-match home T20I series against South Africa from June 9 to 19. With the men's T20 World Cup to be held in Australia later in the year, the series against the Proteas becomes important for the Indian team to test out combinations and see how the players are faring.