Ishan Kishan continued with his rich form and warmed up in style for the T20 World Cup, hitting a 20-ball 53 in India’s practice game against South Africa in Navi Mumbai on Wednesday. India won the game by 30 runs.
Ishan aside, Tilak Varma (45 off 19 balls), captain Suryakumar Yadav (30 off 16 balls), Axar Patel (35 not out off 23 balls) and all-rounder Hardik Pandya (30 off 10 balls) had a good bit of batting practice as India, opting to bat first, posted 240/5. South Africa, in reply, lost George Linde in the first over of their run chase to Arshdeep Singh, but
captain Aiden Markram and Ryan Rickelton counterattacked to put on 65 for the second wicket.
Markram was retired out on 38, after which the Proteas’ chase started losing steam. All the Indian bowlers, barring Jasprit Bumrah, were tried out, with Shivam Dube, Varun Chakravarthy, Axar and Abhishek Sharma also amongst wickets.
A standout feature of the game was Ishan opening the innings alongside Abhishek (24) and not Sanju Samson, who has been struggling for runs. Samson didn’t even get a chance to bat, which suggests the Jharkhand keeper-batter will most likely open the innings in India’s campaign opener against USA at the Wankhede on Saturday.
Tilak, too, appeared sharper on this occasion, hitting three boundaries and as many sixes. There shouldn’t be any more problems for the left-handed batter to be back among the top four of the line-up.
Windies lose
In Bengaluru, the West Indies lost their warm-up game to Afghanistan by 23 runs. In response to 182/6, the Windies could manage only 159/7.
The two-time champions are scheduled to arrive in the city on Thursday evening for their opener against Scotland at Eden Gardens this Saturday.
Brief scores: India 240/5 in 20 ovs (Ishan Kishan 53, Tilak Varma 45; Marco Jansen 1/18). South Africa 210/7 in 20 ovs (Abhishek Sharma 2/32). India won by 30 runs.