Picture : Twitter / BCCI
South Africa have taken a 2-0 lead in the five match T20 series against India . In a low scoring encounter at Cuttack the Proteas beat India by four wickets while chasing a modest target .
Electing to field after winning the toss the Proteas restricted India as the hosts batting flopped again . Ruturaj Gaikwad out cheaply for 1. Ishan Kishan showed some intent in his 34 . Shreyas Iyer scored 40. But the big innings never came . Skipper Rishabh Pant ( 5) ,Hardik Pandya ( 9) added to India’s woes . Axar Patel ( 10). Had not Dinesh Karthik not scored an unbeaten 21 ball 30 towards the end India total would have been 100 . The batting failures saw India post a below par 148/ 6 in their 20 overs.
For the Proteas : Kagiso Rabada 1/ 15 ( 4 overs) , Wayne Parnell 1/ 23 (4 overs), Anrich Nortje 2/36 (4 overs), Dwaine Pretorius 1/40 (4 overs) , Tabraiz Shamsi 0/ 21 ( 2 overs) , Keshav Maharaj 1/12 (2 overs)
In reply South Africa few early wickets , Reeza Hendricks ( 4 ) , Dwaine Pretorius ( 4) last match hero Rassie van der Dussen ( 1) with South Africa 29/ 3 in 5. 3 overs. However Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma scoring crucial 30 ball 35 . While India missed a big innings from their big names, Heinrich Klaasen ( coming in place of injured Quinton de Kock) delivered for South Africa with a superb 46 ball 81 studded with seven fours and five sixes. His innings was the difference between the two sides. In- form David Miller was not out 21 as South Africa romped home by four wickets scoring 149/6 in 18.2 overs.
For Indi It was was forgettable match, pressure now is to save the series in the next match.
India’s bowling barring Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4/ 13 (4 overs) was poor . Avesh Khan 0/ 17 (3 overs) kept things tight . Hardik Pandya 0/ 31 ( 3 overs0 no where near his Tata IPL 2022 form. Yuzvendra Chahal also struggling has made matters worse 1/ 49 ( 4 over), Harshal Patel 1/ 17 ( 3 overs) , Axar Patel 0/ 19 ( 1 over) ,
In the two games, Axar has given away 59 runs in five overs while Chahal has gone for 75 in six overs. “The spinners have (need) to come (perform) better into the game,” Rishabh Pant said at the post-match presentation ceremony without elaborating much. He admitted that a total of 148 for 6 was probably 15 runs short despite the track being two-paced in nature. “I think (while) batting, we were 10-15 runs short,” he said.
