Tristan Stubbs’ watchful 41-ball 47, 19 handy runs by Gerald Coetzee and a clever bowling performance helped South Africa win the second T20I and draw the series level after they were struggling at 86/7 in a chase of 124. Varun Chakaravarthy’s finest figures of 5/17 went in vain as the visitors underperformed with the bat.
In contrast to the first T20I, India’s innings never took off. Sanju Samson, centurion in each of his last two games, was bowled for a duck. South Africa also stuck to bowling the quicks in the PowerPlay, unlike two days ago, and reaped the rewards, as Gerald Coetzee scalped Abhishek Sharma once again.
Captain Suryakumar Yadav was given LBW to an Andile Simelane yorker which left India in shambles at 15/3. Axar Patel oozed confidence when he scored two timely boundaries against Simelane before he was unfortunately run out at the bowler’s end off a straight drive by Hardik Pandya. Tilak Varma’s run-a-ball 20 was terminated by a one-handed catch by David Miller.
Nqabayomzi Peter got rid of Rinku Singh who skied a slog-sweep to Coetzee. Pandya upped the ante as he hit Marco Jansen for two fours and a six, farming the strike while batting with Arshdeep Singh.
In reply, South Africa collected four boundaries within the first three overs before Ryan Rickelton became a victim to Arshdeep Singh. Markram was dinged on the helmet by a Pandya bouncer and was subsequently castled by Varun Chakravarthy in the next over. The mystery spinner then took the wicket of Reeza Hendricks in his second over.
The move to promote Marco Jansen fell flat as he too perished to Chakaravarthy. The dangerous duo of Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller departed off successive deliveries as the hosts crashed to 66/6. Stubbs dug in and sussed out the conditions. However, Simelane, who was starting to look decent in the middle, attempted an ugly hoick which saw him lose his poles.
With 37 needed off four overs, India switched to pace only for South Africa to charge ahead in the contest as Coetzee clobbered Arshdeep Singh for a 103-metre six. He then helped himself to two more boundaries off Avesh Khan in a 12-run over before Stubbs sealed the win for the hosts in the penultimate over with four boundaries off Arshdeep.
A maiden 5 wicket haul for India's new spin sensation! 😍
Take a bow, Varun Chakaravarthy 🙌
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