India posted an imposing 176/7 batting first against South Africa in the T20 World Cup final in Bridgetown on Saturday.
Virat Kohli starred for India with a quite magnificent knock of 76 from 59 balls, as he first laid down the anchor before unleashing the big shots in the latter part of his innings as his team posted 176/7.
After winning the toss and batting, India made the perfect start as Kohli capitalised on some full bowling from Marco Jansen (1/49) to score 15 in the first six balls - which was also the most expensive first over ever in a T20 World Cup final.
Hoping to spring a surprise on India, Keshav Maharaj (2/23) was called on to bowl the second over of the innings. After conceding two boundaries off the first two balls, Rohit Sharma hit one to Heinrich Klaasen at square leg as India lost their first wicket with the score on 23.
Maharaj strikes again
Maharaj struck again two balls later as Rishabh Pant departed for a duck as he attempted a sweep and ended up hitting the ball straight up to wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock for the simplest of catches with India falling to 23/2.
Kagiso Rabada (1/36) was next to strike as he removed Suryakumar Yadav (3) with a bouncer which was caught again by Klaasen, this time at deep fine leg to leave India 34/3.
With India rocked by the triple strike by South Africa, Aiden Markram did not hesitate to bowl himself in the power play. It was a perfectly-executed over, conceding just six as the part-timer was able to sneak in six balls.
At the halfway stage of their innings, India had reached 75/3.
With Axar Patel (47 runs from 31 balls) and Kohli having put on 72 runs for the fourth wicket, it took a moment of brilliance from De Kock to make the breakthrough.
With Kohli playing a flick which was gathered on the bounce by De Kock, the keeper saw non-striker Patel attempting a run and pulled off a brilliant direct hit from over 35 metres to affect the runout. It left India on 106/4 with 6.3 overs remaining.
Kohli was finally out in the penultimate over, caught at long on by Rabada off the bowling of Jansen. It ended a 57-run stand between Kohli and Shivam Dube for the fifth wicket.