India Vs South Africa T20 World Cup 2024 Final: India finished their first innings at 176/7 after Virat Kohli's late surge injected India's innings with much-needed boost. With Rohit Sharma's men achieving an above-par score, India will be very optimistic about their chances of winning the final after achieving such a good total and all eyes will be on the bowlers to deliver the goods for 'Men in Blue'.
Here's How The 1st Innings Concluded
India started off on a scintillating note, as Virat Kohli announced his arrival in the final in some style by registering consecutive boundaries on his first two deliveries. After conceding 15 runs in the first over, it was all South Africa in the powerplay, as Keshav Maharaj broke the Indian hearts by dismissing in-form Indian skipper Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant in a span of 3 deliveries.
Just when it seemed the pair of Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli can guide India out of the trouble, a dream over from Kagiso Rabada shattered the Indian hopes by dismissing the highly-dangerous SKY with a peach of a delivery, as Aiden Markram laid a perfect trap to dismiss the number 1 T20 batsman in the world.
Seeing the over-looming and persistent threat of Anrich Nortje, Axar Patel was promoted and sent in at 5th and not Hardik Pandya, due to latter's known-problems against uneven bounce and rising deliveries. The move paid off dividents as Axar Patel and Virat Kohli gave the Indian innings a much-needed boost by registering a 50+ stand for the 4th wicket.
Axar and Kohli were going so well, until the 14th over, where a miscommunication between the duo led to a run-out at non-striker's end and Axar Patel departed in an unlucky fashion.
Momentum slowed down a bit but a late surge guided the Indian side to 176, thanks to Shivam Dube's quickfire 25+ knock. Virat Kohli top-scored for the team with 76 off 59.