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Rohit Sharma-led India put on a dominant show in the first T20I of the three-match series scheduled against South Africa. The Men in Blue defeated South Africa by eight wickets in the series opener to take a 1-0 lead. Although India played without a few of their main bowlers (Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah), they put on a show with the ball as India bowled out South Africa for a paltry 106/8.
Arshdeep Singh was the best bowler for India with his three scalps. The left-arm quick got rid of the two most dangerous batters in the opposition camp, Quinton de Kock and David Miller along with Rilee Rossouw. All three wickets came for Singh in his very first over. The young pacer outfoxed the South African batters with his ability to swing the ball both ways.
While he got de Kock and Rossouw with out-swinging deliveries, Arshdeep cleaned up David Miller with a beautiful inswinger. The pacer was also named the Player of the Match for his heroics. And when he came to collect the trophy at the post-match presentation, Singh left everyone in chuckles with his excitement to walk up to the presented Murali Karthik. He was seen in a hurry to go up there and talk to Karthik.
When Arshdeep was asked about his haste, the young pacer said that he has been preparing for this Man of the Match speech for a long time and so wanted to deliver at the earliest. “I had thought about what to say if I get the man of the match award and got a little excited,” said Singh.
When asked about his thought process while bowing up front, the pacer said that after seeing how the pitch was behaving, the plan was to keep things simple.
“In the first over DC bhai (Deepak Chahar) set the tone and we knew there was plenty of help from the surface. The plan was to keep it simple and bowl in the right areas.”
The 24-year-old further talked about the three wickets he took and said that he enjoyed Miller’s wicket the most as it felt he deceived the batter. “I enjoyed Miller's wicket as I thought he was expecting an outswinger but I bowled an inswinger instead,” revealed the pacer.
Notably, this was the left-arm quick's first-ever Man of the Match award in International cricket and gauging by what was on display in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, one can sense that there could be quite a few of those coming his way in the future.