India win T20 match against South Africa

Durban : After giving South Africans a tight fight in the Test series, Indian players gave a winning start to the shorter version of the game as they defeated South Africa by 21 runs to win the T20 match here on Sunday.

Chasing a total of 169 runs for victory, the South African batsmen could only make 147 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in their quota of 20 overs.

Opener Morne van Wyk remained the top scorer in the South African innings as he made a fighting 67 runs.

Apart form him none of the batsmen could give the Indian bowlers the much needed challenge.

However, Wayne Parnell (14) and Johan Botha (25) tried to give some amount of momentum to the run chase, but both Ashwin and pacer Nehra picked them up at the correct moment, making it easier for India.

All the Indian bowlers contributed well, with Yusuf Pathan and Ashish Nehra picking 2 wickets each in the match.

The other bowlers used by skipper Dhoni- Yuvraj, Patel, Kumar and Ashwin took one wicket each in the game.

Batting first India had scored 168 for the loss of 6 wickets in twenty overs.

Rohit Sharma remained the pick of the Indian batsmen with his good knock of 53, he was also announced the player of the match.