South Africa had no clue to the batting madness from Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma as the duo struck unbeaten hundreds to power India to a mammoth 283/1 in 20 overs in the fourth and final T20I on Friday at the Wanderers Stadium in Johannesburg.
Having lost all the three tosses in the series before the fourth game, luck favoured Suryakumar Yadav as the Indian captain sent the opposition to bowl on a sunny afternoon. Samson, who was out for two consecutive ducks in the previous two games, started the onslaught with Abhishek Sharma from the start.
The duo added 73 runs for the first wicket in 5.5 overs before Sharma was caught behind off Lutho Sipamla for a 18-ball 36. Thereon, it was all madness from Samson and Varma as they hit the ball in every corner of the park.
Tilak Varma made 120 not out off just 47 balls (9×4, 10×6) whole Sanju Samson remained unbeaten at 109 not out off 56 balls (6×4, 9×6).
List of records during IND vs SA 4th T20I
3 – Sanju Samson became the first cricketer in the world to score three T20I hundreds in a single calendar year. This
2 – Sanju Samson smashed his second century in the series after having scored 107 in the first T20I in Durban .
2 – Tilak Varma became the second Indian and fifth batter overall to score two consecutive T20I hundreds. The first Indian was Samson. The other three on the list are Gustav Mckeon (France), Rilee Rossouw (South Africa) and Phil Salt (England)
2 – This was India’s second-highest T20I total after having scored 297/6 against Bangladesh a couple of months back.
1 – This is the first time two Indian batters have scored hundreds in an single T20I innings.
23 – 23 sixes by the India were the most number of maximums hit by a full member team in an innings. The previous best were 22 each by India (vs Bangladesh in Hyderabad in 2024), West Indies (vs South Africa in Centurion in 2023, and Afghanistan (vs Ireland in Dehradun in 2019).
283 – India 283/1 is the highest score by a team in South Africa against South Africa. The previous best was West Indies’ 258/3 in 2023.
210 – The unbeaten 201-run stand between Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma was the highest for any wicket for India in T20Is. It was also the highest stand by India for any wicket against South Africa and the highest for the second wicket or below for any team in all T20Is.
