India began its journey in the new series against South Africa with a stunning victory on Wednesday. Suryakumar Yadav aka SKY and KL Rahul hammered South African bowlers and gave India an easy win of eight wickets against Proteas.

For the visitors, Keshav Maharaj top-scored with a 35-ball 41, while Aiden Markram and Wayne Parnell contributed 25 and 24 respectively.

Earlier in the evening, India’s successful bowling attack restricted the visitors at 106 runs in today’s match. Half of the South African team was back in the pavilion within the first three overs. Despite Jaspreet Bumrah’s absence, the Indian bowlers delivered solid performance. Deepak Chahar and Arshdeep Singh took five wickets in the beginning. After the collapse of the top order, Proteas managed to score a 3-digit total.

India is facing South Africa in the three-match T20I series starting on Wednesday. And with this, the countdown for the T20 World Cup has also begun. The first match between both the teams will take place in Thiruvananthapuram’s Greenfield International Stadium. The South Africa tour of India will witness a T20I and ODI series. Both the series will comprise three face-offs between both teams. While team India will come in with more confidence on the ground after its recent victory against Australia in the T20I series, team South Africa has also shown good form by winning its last T20I series against Ireland.

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India and South Africa have played 20 T20I matches against each other. Out of them, India has won 11 games while South Africa has won 8. The South African team has a better winning record while playing in India. South Africa has won 5 games while India has won 3 games, in the matches that have taken place in Indian grounds.

India vs South Africa T20I Playing XI

India Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Arshdeep Singh

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South Africa Squad: Quinton de Kock, Temba Bavuma (Captain), Rilee Rossouw, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Wayne Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Keshav Maharaj, Anrich Nortje, Tabraiz Shamsi

Pitch condition and weather

According to ESPN, since the Greenfield International Stadium has only hosted two T20Is so far — and one of them was rain-hit and reduced to eight overs — the pitch’s condition is still a bit of an unknown. On the other hand, the temperature is expected to hover around 27°C on the matchday with 82% humidity and 14 km/hr wind speed. There are no chances of precipitation during the game.