South Africa defeats Ireland to win the first ever T20 match

After forcing a draw in the historic ODI series, Ireland could not deliver on the high hopes in the first-ever T20I match with South Africa. The Proteas’ dominant display earned them a win by 33 runs at Malahide as Ireland struggled to put up a fight. Visitors were restricted to 165-7 after Kagiso Rabada's last over boundaries helped a confident-looking South Africa, later they reduced Ireland to 46-5 in just eight overs itself in the first game of the shortest format. A defeated-looking Ireland could then just force 132-9 on the scoreboard.

After hitting the first ball for a six, Paul Stirling was bowled by George Linde later his opening partner Kevin O'Brien also went for a duck. Next George Dockrell and Andy Balbirnie tried to restore balance but could just score 2 and 22 runs respectively and so on one by one South African bowlers picked apart the entire lineup to secure a win.