{"id":9939,"date":"2025-12-09T19:24:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=669367"},"modified":"2025-12-09T19:24:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T13:54:53","slug":"ind-vs-sa-1st-t20i-abhishek-sharma-smashes-a-fearless-six-off-marco-jansen-delivering-a-bold-reply-to-pacer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/cricket\/ind-vs-sa-1st-t20i-abhishek-sharma-smashes-a-fearless-six-off-marco-jansen-delivering-a-bold-reply-to-pacer\/","title":{"rendered":"IND vs SA 1st T20I: Abhishek Sharma smashes a fearless six off Marco Jansen, delivering a bold reply to pacer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-start=\"198\" data-end=\"537\">India found themselves under early pressure in the first T20I against South Africa in Cuttack after losing Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav inside the first three overs. But young opener <strong data-start=\"386\" data-end=\"434\">Abhishek Sharma delivered a strong statement<\/strong>, counterattacking Marco Jansen with a fearless six despite being struck painfully just a ball earlier.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"539\" data-end=\"800\">South Africa opted to bowl first, and the early overs justified their decision. Lungi Ngidi rocked India with two quick wickets \u2014 first removing Gill for 4 and then dismissing captain Suryakumar Yadav for 12. India slipped to <strong data-start=\"765\" data-end=\"773\">17\/2<\/strong>, forcing an early rebuild.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"802\" data-end=\"1032\">Jansen, operating with steep bounce, targeted Abhishek with a sharp short ball that <strong data-start=\"886\" data-end=\"914\">hit him flush on the hip<\/strong>, cramping him for room. The left-hander was visibly discomforted, but the response came immediately and emphatically.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1034\" data-end=\"1238\">On the very next delivery, Abhishek stepped across and launched Jansen into the stands for a towering <strong data-start=\"1136\" data-end=\"1159\">six over square leg<\/strong>, prompting commentators to call it <em data-start=\"1195\" data-end=\"1238\">\u201ca stunning response to hostile bowling.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1240\" data-end=\"1395\">At the end of 3.5 overs, India moved to <strong data-start=\"1280\" data-end=\"1288\">25\/2<\/strong>, with Abhishek batting on 7 off 6 balls, including that massive six, while Tilak Varma supported him on 2.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"1397\" data-end=\"1584\">With early wickets gone and South Africa maintaining the pressure, Abhishek\u2019s counterattack has given India vital momentum and signalled intent in a challenging start at Barabati Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India found themselves under early pressure in the first T20I against South Africa in Cuttack after losing Shubman Gill and\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":32460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9939","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\/9939","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=9939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}