South Africa are currently touring India for a three-match T20I series, and the first T20I went in India’s favour as Men in Blue won the game by eight wickets. The two heavyweights faced each other in the second T20I at Guwahati in a high-score game on October 2, Sunday.
To begin the proceedings, Temba Bavuma won the toss and opted to field first. Indian openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma did a fantastic job in the powerplay and the former managed to reach his half-century in the game. The Men in Blue gathered 57 runs at the end of six overs without losing a wicket.
The duo put on a 96-run partnership for the first wicket and it was the Indian skipper who made his way back to the pavilion first after scoring 43. Virat Kohli, who joined Rahul in the middle tried to play the anchoring role initially. Once the India vice-captain perished for 57 runs, Suryakumar Yadav came into the field and started firing right away.
After a mix-up with Virat Kohli in the middle, Suryakumar was runout and returned to the pavilion scoring 61 runs off 22 balls. Men in Blue put on a huge total of 237 runs for the loss of three wickets on the back of Dinesh Karthik’s blistering cameo in the end. At the end of the first innings, Virat Kohli remained unbeaten at 49 off 28 balls while Karthik remained at 17 off 7 balls.
India win by 16 runs despite David Miller’s valiant century
South Africa, on the other hand, got off to a poor start. Opener Temba Bavuma returned for a duck and so did Rilee Rossouw. The Proteas were 45 for the loss of two wickets at the end of field restrictions. Aiden Markram and Quinton de Kock tried to build a good partnership post the powerplay. While Markram got out after scoring 33 runs, David Miller took up the task of hunting down the total.
Miller joined hands with de Kock to up the run rate and the former started to hit maximums at will. South Africa put on a great fight and Miller bagged his second century in the T20Is as he scored an unbeaten 106 off 47.
South Africa scored 221 for the loss of three wickets and lost the match by 16 runs. The third T20I will be played at Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore on October 4, Tuesday.
Let’s take a look at a few Twitter reactions for the thrilling encounter between the two sides:
If you want pure entertainment in the name of Cricket, call these two guys. #SuryakumarYadav #DavidMiller #INDvsSA #INDvsSAT20I pic.twitter.com/ujqS0QpUN5
— Anushmita⁷ (@anushmita7) October 3, 2022
Man of the match was clearly @DavidMillerSA12
What a knock 🏏#INDvsSA— Dr Jatin Relia (@JatinRelia) October 3, 2022
Virat Kohli is the luckiest guy in the world now,
He is at the non-striker's end when Surya is hitting.#ViratKohli𓃵 #SuryakumarYadav #INDvSA #INDvsSA #LegendsLeagueCricket— Deepak Rajpurohit²⁴ 🇮🇳 (@DeepakSinghGRaj) October 3, 2022
#IND won the match and series basis their strong batting, but the bowling almost failed to defend 237
It reinforces that in #Aus our chances totally depend on our batting clicking in a Big Way
Bowlers must improve, however#INDvsSA #Cricket
— Syed Yusuf Mehdi 🇮🇳 (@yusufmehdi) October 3, 2022
When our batting sends us into orbit, the bowlers bring us back down to Earth, keep us grounded. #INDvSA
— Shanky Sharma (@bregoro) October 3, 2022
Greatest victory by Team 🇮🇳 india #RohitSharma #ViratKohli𓃵 #SuryakumarYadav #KLRahul contributions gives a huge target to South affrica.but it's great to admired South affrica also played chaseble batting. Unfortunately can't reach the target…historical win for team india.
— Biswojit Khatua (@Biswojit31) October 3, 2022
Congratulations to the Indian team for their one-sided T20I series win against South Africa. It was great to see everyone play with such zeal and perfection. Keep up the good work boys and kudos to you all on another incredible win! 💪🏻🇮🇳#INDvsSA
— Suresh Raina🇮🇳 (@ImRaina) October 3, 2022
Congrats to #Indiancricketteam on winning this match as well as series against #SouthAfrica
Amazing performance by our batting lineup
And @surya_14kumar this man is on another level hope he continues his SKY performance in T20 worldcup#INDvSA
— Gagan (@Gagan20045) October 3, 2022
Can someone tell me why KL Rahul was the player of the match yesterday and not SKY? #INDvSA
— സ്കൈവാക്കർ (@Namp_Vader) October 3, 2022
