India v/s South Africa: AB de Villiers ruled out of T20I series

South Africa's injury woes continued with their star batsman AB de Villiers being ruled out of the three-match T20I series due to a knee injury on Sunday.

De Villiers had suffered a blow to his left knee a day before the fifth ODI. Though the former skipper featured in the last two games but he was absent when the Proteas trained on Saturday.

"He suffered a blow to the knee while batting ahead of the fifth ODI, and although he passed a fitness test on Friday, the injury worsened significantly throughout the match," Mohammed Moosajee, South Africa's team manager, was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

In a release, Cricket South Africa further said that de Villiers has been advised rest to allow him a full recovery ahead of the four-Test series against Australia starting in Durban on March 1 .

De Villiers had suffered an injury to his right index finger during the third Test against India and had missed the first three one-dayer.

South Africa fielded a depleted side for the T20Is after Faf du Plessis and Quinton de Kock were ruled out with a fractured finger and a left wrist injury respectively. 

Seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar took career-best figures of 5-24 to help India ease to a 28-run victory over South Africa in the opening Twenty20 International of their three-game series at the Wanderers on Sunday.

Having been sent in to bat, India plundered 203 for five from their 20 overs on a flat batting wicket as opener Shikhar Dhawan hit a superb 72 from 39 balls.

It is India's highest innings total against South Africa in the shortest format of the game, with debutant seamer Junior Dala (2-47 in four overs) the most successful home bowler.

South Africa were in the game until Kumar's final over when he picked up the key wicket of Reeza Hendricks (70 from 50 balls), and then dismissed Heinrich Klaasen (16) and Chris Morris (0) in successive balls, before Dane Paterson (1) was the fourth wicket to fall as he was run out.

The home side ended their innings on 175 for nine, continuing their struggles against the tourists in the limited overs matches on the tour having been thrashed 5-1 in the one-day international series.

South Africa were dealt a blow before the start of the match as their best batsman AB de Villiers was ruled out of the series with a knee injury.

The second Twenty20 clash will be played in Pretoria on Wednesday, with the final game on Saturday in Cape Town.