After guiding his team to a three-wicket victory against India in the second ODI, South Africa captain Aiden Markram conceded that his team’s resolve would need to be strong to ‘take it on the chin’ when the batting does not come through. An explosive combination of Tristan Stubbs and Gerald Coetzee saw SA off the heat brought about by the Indian spinners, steering Proteas to a series-levelling three-wicket victory over India in the second T20I of the series at Gqeberha on Sunday.
Later, Markram also praised the bowling strategy during the post-match presentation by stating the bowlers did well, “I thought we bowled really well, some really good plans and our bowlers executed really well. From a batting perspective, you hope to contain it till the halfway mark, but this did not happen. It doesn’t work out at times and we need to take it on the chin, we are going to stick to our brand of cricket. Of Course, I’m very proud of the contribution of course that Andile Simlalane and Nqabayomzi Peter was huge. For all the younger guys, they motivated the older ones. One game at a time. One step at a time. We won this game so that the series does not tilt in their favour.”
The series consisting of four matches stand at 1 – 1.
South Africa won the toss and chose to bowl first. The Indian batters kept losing their wickets in regular intervals with no significant partnerships. Useful contributions from Hardik Pandya (39 not out off 45 including 4 fours, 1 six), Axar Patel (27 off 21 hitting 4 fours), and Tilak Varma (20 off 20 including 1 four, 1 six) helped the Indian team post 124/6 in their allotted twenty overs.
Marco Jansen and Coetzee troubled the Indian batters during their four-over spells giving away 25 runs and picking up 1 wicket each. Andile and Peter managed to take one wicket each as well.
In the run-chase of 125, India was in a good position after having put South Africa at 87-6, because Varun Chakravarthy scalped five wickets (5/17). However, Stubbs (47* off 41, with seven fours) and Coetzee (19* off 9, with two fours and a six) counter attacked to upset India’s plans and took the side home with a win with an over and three wickets remaining.
Ravi Bishnoi and Arshdeep Singh also claimed one wicket apiece for India.
Stubbs earned the ‘Player of the Match Award.’
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