South Africa defeated India by five wickets at the Optus Stadium, Perth. Aiden Markram and David Miller led the team’s 134-run chase, after Lungi Ngidi’s fast bowling stunned the Indian batting lineup. Suryakumar Yadav scored 68 runs off 40 balls in the first innings.
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Here are some highlights of the crucial Super 12 match:
1. India’s poor start
India’s openers continued their poor form. Both Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul were sent back to the pavilion in the powerplay overs. India were 26/2. Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya and Deepak Hooda soon followed suit and India were reduced to 49/5 in 8.3 overs.
2. Rabada’s fielding extends India’s misery
Kagiso Rabada, in spite of going wicketless in his four-over spell, was brilliant while fielding. He took a brilliant catch to dismiss in-form batter Virat Kohli for the first time in this T20 World Cup. Lungi Ngidi bowled a short ball, which Kohli pulled, only to get a top edge. Rabada took a brilliant running catch at fine leg to give Ngidi his third wicket.
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3. SKY takes India to 133
Suryakumar Yadav, then with the help of Dinesh Kartik and Ravichandran Ashwin, helped rebuild the innings for India. His half century took India to a respectable total of 133/9. To understand the nature of his contribution, here is a stat: SKY hit 68 runs off 40 balls with a strike rate of 170. On the other hand, the rest of the batting lineup managed to score only 57 runs off 80 balls with a strike rate of just 71.25.
4. SA had a poor start
South Africa had a horror start. They were reduced to 3/2 thanks to Arshdeep Singh’s second over. Singh’s brilliant swing bowling sent back Quinton de Kock and last match’s centurion Rilee Rossouw back to the pavilion in the second over of the game. This brilliant over, coupled with economical overs of Bhuvaneshwar Kumar put the Proteas on the backfoot in the early stages of the game, and they managed to finish the powerplay with only 24 runs on board with the loss of three wickets.
5. India has key lapses in field
India had a poor day at the field. They missed numerous run out chances. However, the one misfield that is going to hurt them the most is the dropped catch by Virat Kohli. This came at a crucial time as Aiden Markram and David Miller had just started to accelerate the chase. Just after that, skipper Rohit Sharma also missed an easy run out chance, when the SA batters took a single that was suicidal. Wicketkeeper Dinesh Kartik also failed to collect several bouncers, which went straight to the boundary.
6. Markram’s innings takes SA home
Markram timed his chase to perfection as he went after Hardik Pandya and Ravichandran Ashwin. He hit boundaries in consistent intervals to keep South Africa in the chase. When he started his innings, SA were reeling at 3/2. He then took his time and didn’t take any risk till the 10th over. After the drinks break, he showed intent on every ball he faced, and started hitting boundaries off Pandya and Ashwin. At the end, when Pandya did dismiss him, it was all but over for the Men in Blue.
