SL VS RSA - 1st T20I, South Africa tour of Sri Lanka, 2021

So this wasn't much of a challenge. But on a day when the real debate was between cancellation and forfeiture a few thousand miles away, we'd happily take even the most one-sided of matches. Okay, this was me, Vineet Anantharaman, writing it out for you in the company of Sagar Chawla and our scorer, Venkatesh. Until the day after, and hopefully something closer, ta ta!!

Keshav Maharaj | Winning captain: Very happy, brilliant performance all around. I have always wanted to play T20 cricket. I might be 31 but I feel like I'm 21. Just trying to do my bit and get my place in that World Cup starting XI. I always looked up to Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid. I have tried to emulate myself on Dravid, he's been such a gentleman. He went under Sachin's radar and has been such a great of the game.

Dasun Shanaka | Losing captain: There were quite a few challenges. We should have maximized the powerplay; it has been a concern in the last few series for us. The pitches will be a big factor, but we need to adjust to the conditions better. I am trying to play the best team in this series and we want to win the series, but I'll probably try and see some of the other players also.

Aiden Markram | MoM: It's a new role. Getting some game time has been good. Away from South African conditions is a good challenge as well. There are a lot of experienced heads in our changing room and they make it easier. In conditions like these you are going to bowl as many spinners as possible. We picked three of them today and it worked well. I have worked hard on my bowling, but with the way these guys played, I'm happy to be sitting in the field. A couple of the players were hurt [On missing out the T20 WC call]. For the guys who are selected it is a relief and they know exactly what is needed from them. A lot of hard work has been put into what we want to achieve.

22:26 Local Time, 16:56 GMT, 22:26 IST: Quite a no-contest this. 164 is one of those neither here nor there targets, but Sri Lanka went clearly nowhere in their chase. Take this final stand out, and there wasn't even one proper partnership. Dinesh Chandimal kept finding the occasional boundary, but he too caught up only towards the second half of his innings. The others, well, couldn't find any sort of timing. But let's not steal credit away from the South African bowling. Nortje cranked up the speed guns in his first over, and then mixed his pace up perfectly with the older ball at the death. The spinners too were impressive, making good use of this sticky pitch, getting it to grip and keeping it tight. No wonder in this era of big chases and the possibility of some rain, both captains were keen to bat first. Right, here come the presentations ..

Rabada to Karunaratne, 1 run, hard good length, outside off, slapped down to long-on. Okay, that's that then, meek ..

Rabada to Chandimal, 1 run, 107kph, slower one into the pitch. Chandimal swivels as he looks to pull, top-edges, but wide of short third man

Rabada to Karunaratne, 1 run, 135kph, full toss again. Karunaratne doesn't quite get hold of this, heaving hard, losing some shape, and dragging it off the inside half to deep mid-wicket

Rabada to Karunaratne, FOUR, annoyin runs these .. with Karunaratne hoicking, targetting long-on, only for the outside-edge to give him what he wants at third man

Rabada to Karunaratne, no run, 131kph, sticky back of a length delivery outside off, off-cutter. sneaking under Karunaratne's early-into-the-shot pull

Rabada to Karunaratne, SIX, a proper no-look whip. Full toss, and Karunaratne's put it into the scoreboard. 92 meters of audacity. Alas, the audacity is a little too late ..

Kagiso Rabada [2.0-0-8-0] is back into the attack

Okay, formalities.

Nortje to Chandimal, no run, 147kph, nails the wide yorker now. Just sheer top class bowling this. Chandimal does manage to get bat on this, jamming it straight to backward point

Nortje to Chandimal, no run, 112kph, leg-cutter, into the pitch, sticky, losing Chandimal's timing, and getting dragged out to cover

Nortje to Karunaratne, 1 run, 142kph, wide, low, full, with Karunaratne stretching and slicing through sweeper

Nortje to Karunaratne, wide, spots him shuffling and goes wide outside off, too wide in fact

Nortje to Karunaratne, no run, 111kph, another proper fox. Karunaratne swings full-blooded, downtown, and the ball loops, dips and sneaks past off of it

Nortje to Chandimal, 1 run, 113kph, slower one from the back of the hand. Muscled slap, too hard, losing shape, and getting it to deep extra cover

Nortje to Karunaratne, 1 run, full toss, swung hard through the line, and long-off's picked out