In the first T20I between the sides at Kingsmead, Durban, South African skipper Aiden Markram won the toss and chose to bowl first. There was early success for the hosts as Gerald Coetzee struck in the fourth over of the innings, dismissing Abhishek Sharma with his very first ball.

India made it to 56-1 by the end of the Powerplay, with Sanju Samson and skipper Suryakumar Yadav out in the middle. Samson went past his half-century off 27 balls in the eighth over, hitting leg spinner Nqaba Peter for two consecutive sixes to do so.

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Surya was dismissed off the last ball of the ninth over, but Samson continued to tear into the South African bowling lineup. Peter, Patrick Kruger, Andile Simelane and Keshav Maharaj all came in for harsh treatment.

Off the first ball of the 15th over, Samson completed his century, off just 47 balls before eventually departing for 107 off 50 balls, caught in the deep off Peter. His previous innings in T20Is had also been a century – 111 against Bangladesh.

He became just the fourth man ever to hit consecutive T20I centuries, and the first from India.

Full list of players to score consecutive T20I centuries

The first player to score consecutive centuries in T20Is was France's Gustav Mckeon, in July 2022. Samson is not only the only Indian on the list, but also the only player whose innings have been in different months. Curiously, he is also the only player to not register a score of 109. Phil Salt is the only player on the list to have achieved this feat with both centuries coming against the same opponent.

Samson has now scored 218 runs in his last two T20I innings. This is the third-highest aggregate across two consecutive T20I innings, after Salt (228 runs) and Aaron Finch, who scored 68* & 172 against Pakistan and Zimbabwe respectively in July 2018, for a total of 240 runs.

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