After playing a crucial knock in the second Twenty20 worldwide match which helped his team beat India by six wickets, South Africa skipper Jean-Paul Duminy (64 not out) said the team kept its composure while batting.
Advertisement
In the second T20I which India lost out to the Proteas by 6 wickets, here are the embarrassing records Chahal created.
India made an aggressive start and scored 78/2 in the first six overs which set them up for 203/5 eventually. “Hopefully, that improves come Wednesday (in the second T20I)”. But the results entirely depend on how players performed during the series and keeping that in mind this series looks to be India’s series.
India was in a dire need of someone to produce a mature innings from someone in the middle order. This means that Kohli has now not performed according to his supremely high levels in two successive matches in the “Rainbow Nation”. The Indian bowlers had to embrace a hard outing and there was one bowler who was on the receiving end particularly. Manish (Pandey) and (Suresh) Raina batted well and then Manish and MS (Dhoni) got us to 190 (188/4).
Mahendra Singh Dhoni rolled back the years in stunning style as he left the hosts reeling with his power-hitting. With Behardien on strike, the first three balls (including one wide) netted SA four runs. Off just 28 deliveries, Dhoni smashed unbeaten 52, which included four boundaries and six mammoth sixes.
It was not a ideal performance by the Proteas, but they will take positives from this match as they managed to soak up the pressure considering that the average score batting second at this venue is 130. “Today it was about bowling slower, not giving the batsmen the pace to work with”. He and Raina added another 45 runs to the total before Raina was declared lbw off Andile Phehlukwayo’s bowling in the 11th over.
South African opener Reeza Hendricks heaped praise on Bhuvneshwar Kumar, saying the Indian pacer consistently hit the right areas and didn’t give the batsmen anything to score off during the first T20 worldwide here. The moisture could prove to be tricky for the bowlers again. Dhawan scored 72 from 39 balls to be the other stand-out performer of the match.
Klaasen has been a revelation, proving with his 30-ball 69 that his heroics in the Pink Day ODI weren’t an aberration.
India continued their winning momentum from the ODI series to register a victory in the opening T20I.
Advertisement
Jaydev Unadkat and T20 global debutant Shardul Thakur, in for the injured Jasprit Bumrah, dismissed JJ Smuts and Reeza Hendricks respectively as the Proteas were reduced to 38-2 after five overs. It was a night the leggie, who gave away 64 in four overs, would like to forget. Apart from Bhuvai’s five wickets, Jaydev Unadkat, Hardik Pandya and Yuswendra Chahal took one wicket each. Rohit Sharma got out for a golden duck and captain Virat Kohli was dismissed for just one run.
