WATCH: Rinku Singh smashes Aiden Markram for successive sixes

It was the Rinku Singh show on Tuesday at St George’s Park in Gqeberha. The 26-year-old scored his first-ever T20I half-century to help India reach 180/7. The Indian innings was cut short by 3 balls as rain interrupted proceedings for a short while.

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Rinku Singh has been the talk of the Indian and world cricket fans since the IPL 2022 season. The left-handed batter has already been labelled as the Indian finisher and on occasions been compared to MS Dhoni.

Rinku Singh takes Aiden Markram to the cleaners

The 19th over of the 1st innings saw Aiden Markram roll his over since Rinku Singh was in the middle. After conceding just four runs from the first four deliveries it seemed the South African skipper’s decision was the right one.

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#AidenMarkram brought himself on in the penultimate over, and #RinkuSingh made him pay with back-to-back maximums 🔥

Rinku has brought his A-game to South Africa!

Tune-in to the 2nd #SAvIND T20I
LIVE NOW | Star Sports Network#Cricket pic.twitter.com/HiibVjyuZH

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) December 12, 2023

Rinku Singh decided to take matters into his own hands as he smashed Markram over wide long on for a huge six. This helped the Indian batter reach 62 runs as India was looking at a decent score on the board.

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The very next ball Aiden Markram saw the ball fly straight over his head for a huge six. The force behind the shot was such that it broke the glass in the commentary box. With this hit Rinku Singh had moved to 68 runs from 39 balls with 9 fours and 2 sixes.

South Africa was set at a target of chasing 152 runs from 15 overs after rain stopped play for a decent amount of time. Suryakumar Yadav continued his good form, with the bat in T20I cricket to score yet another fifty in this format of the game.

The Indian skipper also reached 2000 T20I runs during his knock. Yadav became the fastest batter to reach the mark in terms of balls faced. Indian openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill failed to get going as both fell without opening their account.

Young Tilak Varma scored 29 runs and helped India get back into the contest along with his Indian skipper. It was Rinku Singh though who stole the show as he scored his maiden T20I fifty to mark his arrival in the international stage.