Sanju Samson created history, India registered a big win over South Africa in the first T20 match.

Sanju Samson's breathtaking second century was beautifully complemented by spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Ravi Bishnoi as India defeated South Africa by 61 runs in the first T20 International on Friday to take a 1-0 lead in the four-match series. Often criticized for not recognizing his talent, Samson became the first Indian batsman to score back-to-back centuries in T20 Internationals, as his 107-run knock of 10 sixes in 50 balls helped India Reached 202 runs for 8 wickets. In 20 overs. Despite this, India could score only 35 runs in the last five overs.

In reply, it was Varun (3/25 from 4 overs) who literally killed off the contest by dismissing Heinrich Klaasen (25 from 22 balls) and David Miller (18 from 22 balls) in the space of three balls in the 12th over . South Africa was out for 141 runs in 17.5 overs.

But no amount of praise is enough for Bishnoi (3/28 in 4 overs), who bowled a brilliant spell of 3/28 in 4 overs. In the 11th over, he bowled five consecutive dot balls to Miller, leaving the South African batsman struggling to understand his googly as the pressure mounted on the Proteas, which Varun expertly took advantage of.

In the 13th over, Bishnoi took a few more wickets after Varun and India's victory remained a mere formality.

On a fairly good batting track, the Varun-Bishnoi duo bowled 27 dot balls between them after the early loss of Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan.

Sanju: The Real Samson

On a cool Durban evening as the winds blew at Kingsmead, Sanju displayed Samson-like strength along with silky grace that one can only associate with the halcyon days of Rohit Sharma.

Sixes were hit on the short balls of leg spinner Nakabyomji Peter and he created space on the long balls of the fast bowlers and dropped them on the ground.

The clarity of his shot selection and how cleverly he was always ahead of the South African in terms of using field placements to his advantage, speak to his improvement as a batsman in recent times. The best thing about Samson is his new-found consistency and making his mark as an opening batsman in the shortest format.

The two regular openers Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal are currently busy with Test commitments along with Rishabh Pant, but even when all three are present, they will have to make way for Samson rather than the other way around.

The best shot that will remain etched in the memory for the longest time was a six over extra cover off fast bowler Andile Semillane, where the batsman held the pose after catching the ball, which was a sight to behold.

He added 66 runs in just 5.5 overs with Suryakumar Yadav (21) and 77 runs in 5.4 overs with Tilak Verma (33).

Their performance had predicted a score closer to 250, but fast bowlers Gerald Coetzee (3/37 in 4 overs) and Marco Jansen (1/24 in 4 overs) bowled brilliantly in the death overs, taking wickets not only In fact, runs were also scored liberally. The number of dot balls to reduce the damage caused by Samson during the first 15 overs.