In a low-scoring thriller, clean striking by Tristan Stubbs and Gerald Coetzee at the end powered South Africa to victory. While defending 125, Varun Chakaravarthy’s Fiver placed India in control until Stubbs and Coetzee took on the pacers and sealed the victory for the hosts.
It was overcast conditions at St George’s Park, Gqeberha, and the South African skipper Aiden Markram decided to bowl first. In the very first over left-armer pacer Marco Jansen gets little movement but enough to clean up the last match centurion Sanju Samson for a duck. At the end of the second over Coetzee got the second wicket for the hosts in the face of Abhishek Sharma.
Axar Patel added a valuable 27 runs while Hardik Pandya was the highest run scorer(39) for the visitors which helped them to cross the 100 mark. Nqabayomzi Peter was the most economical bowler for South Africa as he took one wicket for just 20 runs. The African bowlers restricted India to 124 runs.
In the second innings, South Africa looked comfortable until the mystery spinner Varun Chakaravarthy turned the momentum towards India as he got the two big fishes Heinrich Klassen and David Miller on two consecutive balls. Stubb’s calm innings of 47 runs helped South Africa level the four-match series 1-1.
SuperSport Park Cricket Stadium will host the third T20 between South Africa and India on 13th November.
Jasir Basharat is a cricket enthusiast capturing the heart of the game through insightful analysis and storytelling sharing his passion for the sport through engaging narratives. He is a business graduate from University of Kashmir.
