South Africa won the toss and opted to bowl first. Abhishek and Gill opened for India.

Extra bounce and Swing troubled the Indian openers. Gill hit a four and got out on the second ball. Captain Sky also struggled and got out on a low score. Tilak Verma and Axar both failed to score quick runs. Tilak scored 26 runs in 32 balls, and Axar scored 23 runs in 21 balls. 

Hardik Pandya showed why he is rated so highly in white-ball cricket. Hardik Pandya is a player who never fails when India needs him. Hardik scored 59 runs in just 28 balls. Jitesh Sharma also played a cameo in the end.

Lungi Ngidi troubled the batters with his extra bouncy deliveries. Ngidi took 3 wickets. Sipamla took 2 wickets. Donovan Ferreira picked 1 wicket. India posted a total of 175 runs. 

Arshdeep and Bumrah, two genuine wicket-taker bowlers, played their first T20I match together in India. De Kock and Markram opened for South Africa. De Kock was a piece of cake for Arshdeep. Arshdeep took De Kock’s wicket on 2nd ball of the first over.

Stubbs looked good, and he hit 2 good boundaries to Arshdeep. But Arshdeep had the last laugh. After 4 overs, Captain Sky took the chance of bringing spinners into the game. Axar bowled Markram with an Arm Ball. India controlled the game from here. Hardik took Miller’s wicket on the first ball. Varun got rid of Donovan Ferreira.

Marco hit a six to Varun, but Varun took Marco’s wicket with his mystery delivery. Bumrah had 2 wickets in the 11th over. Brevis and Maharaj both got out in the same over. Shivam Dube also got Sipamla’s wicket. India won the match by 101 runs.

An emphatic win in the #INDvSA T20I series opener 🥳#TeamIndia register a 1⃣0⃣1⃣-run victory in Cuttack to go 1⃣-0⃣ up 🙌

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/tiemfwcNPh@IDFCFIRSTBank pic.twitter.com/mw3oxC5AHw

— BCCI (@BCCI) December 9, 2025