Gkebarha, November 11 (UITV)- Indian batsmen performed disappointingly in the second T20 match played at St George’s Park on Sunday against South Africa, but after that the Indian bowlers made a great comeback. Despite the tremendous performance of the Indian bowlers, South Africa won the match by three wickets with one over to spare. Tristan Stubbs’ unbeaten innings of 47 runs for South Africa made the hard work of the Indian bowlers go in vain. With this win, the visiting team has leveled the four-match series 1-1.
Batting first, India scored just 124/6 in the stipulated 20 overs, which is considered a modest score in any T20 match. Sanju Samson, who scored a brilliant century in the first match, was dismissed on the third ball without scoring any runs. A good length ball from Marco Jensen hit his leg stump and he returned to the pavilion. After this, one after the other Indian batsmen headed towards the pavilion.
Abhishek Sharma (4) was also out soon, his catch was taken by Gerald Coetzee. Then captain Suryakumar Yadav (4) was LBW by Andile Simlane and India’s score became 3 wickets for 15 runs. This performance of the top order batsmen of the Indian team was very disappointing, due to which the team came under pressure.
In the middle order, Hardik Pandya (39 not out), Axar Patel (27) and Tilak Verma (20) scored some runs to take India past 100 runs, but the performance of other batsmen was below average. Tilak Verma and Axar Patel made some partnerships, but no batsman could stay and take the innings forward.
Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya gave some support to the team, but the unfortunate run out of Axar Patel was a big blow for India. In the 12th over, Pandya’s shot reached the stumps directly at the non-striker end and Axar was out of the crease. After this, the pressure on the Indian batsmen increased and no other batsman could even reach double figures.
Finally, India scored 124 runs for 6 wickets in 20 overs. Apart from Keshav Maharaj, one of the South African bowlers, all others took one wicket each, which included contributions from Marco Jansen, Andile Simlane and Kagiso Rabada. South Africa used a total of six bowlers and effectively controlled India’s batting performance.
India’s bowlers may have accepted the challenge of defending a small score, but they bowled very well. Varun Chakravarthy, in particular, performed brilliantly and took five wickets for 17 runs in 4 overs, which was the best performance of his T20 career.
Chakravarthy gave a jolt to South Africa’s start by dismissing Ryan Rickelton and Reeza Hendricks. After this, he also walked Marco Jansen and Heinrich Klaasen. He took his fifth wicket by bowling out David Miller and put India in a strong position.
Also, Andile Simelane was dismissed by Ravi Bishnoi on a googly. The Indian bowlers did well especially in the last overs and gave South Africa a tough target to win.
However, India bowled hard, South Africa’s Tristan Stubbs, who was at the other end, changed the course of the match in the end. He hit seven fours and played an unbeaten innings of 47 runs in just 28 balls. When South Africa’s score was 86 runs in the 16th over and they needed 26 balls to score 39 runs, Stubbs along with Gerald Coetzee turned the match in their favor. Coetzee hit a six and two fours in his unbeaten innings of 19 runs and along with Stubbs took the team to 128/7.
India tried their best to win the match, but they could not control their bowling in the last overs. South Africa needed only 7 runs in the last over and Stubbs along with Coetzee achieved this target easily.
This match proved that anything can happen in T20 cricket. Indian bowlers performed brilliantly, but in the end Stubbs and Coetzee turned the match in favor of South Africa. The Indian team needs to improve its batting order, especially in the top order. South Africa fought brilliantly in this exciting match and tied the series 1-1. Now an interesting match will be seen between the two teams in the next match of the series.
