{"id":9933,"date":"2025-12-09T18:37:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:07:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=669210"},"modified":"2025-12-09T18:37:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:07:20","slug":"ind-vs-sa-1st-t20i-south-africa-opt-to-bowl-as-suryakumar-yadav-eyes-strong-start-in-cuttack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/cricket\/ind-vs-sa-1st-t20i-south-africa-opt-to-bowl-as-suryakumar-yadav-eyes-strong-start-in-cuttack\/","title":{"rendered":"IND vs SA, 1st T20I: South Africa Opt to Bowl as Suryakumar Yadav Eyes Strong Start in Cuttack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"189\" data-end=\"461\">South Africa won the toss and opted to bowl first in the opening T20I against India at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack. With dew expected to play a major role later in the evening, skipper Aiden Markram backed his bowlers to make early inroads under favourable conditions.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"463\" data-end=\"758\">\u201cWe\u2019re going to bowl first. Quite a bit of dew around, might be a constant throughout the game but might get a bit worse later,\u201d Markram said at the toss. He added that mentally adjusting to conditions will be crucial in a high-stakes series that serves as preparation for next year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"760\" data-end=\"1139\">Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav admitted there was some uncertainty while assessing the pitch earlier. \u201cWe were a little confused looking at the wicket, it was looking a bit greener yesterday,\u201d he said. \u201cBut happy to bat first, want to make the most of it and defend. It becomes a little challenging for the bowlers, but let\u2019s not think about it too much\u2014have it as a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1141\" data-end=\"1389\">Suryakumar also highlighted India\u2019s packed schedule as valuable preparation ahead of global competitions. \u201cWe had a good series in Australia, now we play against South Africa and then New Zealand. It\u2019s good preparation. Want to enjoy it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1391\" data-end=\"1548\">India will now look to set a competitive total on what appears to be a fresh surface, while South Africa aim to capitalize on early conditions with the ball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa won the toss and opted to bowl first in the opening T20I against India at the Barabati Stadium\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":32454,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cricket"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}