Reeza Hendricks praises for Bhuvi, says he gave nothing away

South African opener Reeza Hendricks showered praise on Indian cricketer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, saying that the extraordinary pacer apparently tried everything to make us stop from taking runs as he consistently hit the right areas and didn't give the batsmen any chance during the first T20 international on Sunday.

Bhuvneshwar picked his maiden five-wicket haul (5-24) as India won the first T20I by 28 runs after restricting South Africa to 175 for 9 in 20 overs. 

"The bowler was just so good that he tried all most everything to stop us from going ahead which actually give us nothing to score off. So we had to be happy with ones and twos at that time," said Hendricks, who scored 70 off 50 balls. 

"The team executed their plans very well and kept it very simple. That's pretty much it compared to what we did," it was inevitable as their game was much more appealing than ours." he added.

India made an aggressive start and scored 78/2 in the first six overs which set them up for 203/5 eventually. In comparison, South Africa were 41 for 2 after the powerplay overs. 

Hendricks had an 81-run partnership with Farhaan Behardien but it was not enough to change the game. He said they had to play according to the situation as India was bowling a very tight line. 

Conditions were very good for batting. But Indians bowled really well. So I started slowly and then I had to get myself in and like I said, take it as deep as possible, with the wickets falling around.

"I managed to do that but would have loved to see the team home," Hendricks said. "As an opener, we try to get a start and capitalise in the first six and then take it deep as possible. 

"The Indian team obviously bowled well, we lost a few wickets so that meant obviously we had to stabilise the innings and build a few partnerships and try to take it as deep as possible," he added.