India vs South Africa T20I series: SA wins low scoring thriller

South Africa defeated India by three wickets in the second T20 International. India lost the toss and batted first and scored 124 runs for 6 wickets in 20 overs. In reply, South Africa achieved the target by losing seven wickets in 10 overs. Tristan Stubbs scored an unbeaten 47 runs. Stubbs was the top run scorer in this low-scoring match. The four-match series is now tied at 1-1. India had won the first match.

This match was tennis’ equivalent of losing after holding match point. At one time the African team was struggling after losing seven wickets for a score of 86 runs. Varun Chakraborty took five wickets. The pitch was helping the spinners. Despite this, captain Suryakumar Yadav decided to bowl fast bowlers in the death overs. This decision proved costly and Stubbs and Gerald Coetzee (19 runs off 9 balls) made an unbeaten partnership of 42 runs for the eighth wicket.

Varun Chakraborty took 5 wickets in the match

Spinner Varun Chakraborty performed brilliantly against South Africa. He took 5 wickets in the match and gave only 17 runs in his quota of four overs. Apart from this, Ravi Bishnoi also took 1 wicket for 21 runs in four overs. Both these players kept a check on the African batsmen and did not allow them to play free strokes. Africa lost 7 wickets for just 86 runs and was struggling to win the match. In such a situation, everyone expected that Team India would win the match from here. The spinners were getting a lot of help from the pitch and the Indian spinners were dominating.

Axar Patel bowled only one over

But then captain Suryakumar Yadav took a big decision and got the 17th, 18th and 19th overs bowled by faster bowlers and from here the course of the match changed. While Axar Patel had three overs left. Whereas earlier in the match, Axar had bowled only one over and he gave two runs in it. In such a situation, the biggest question was why did Surya make Axar bowl only one over on a spin friendly wicket? While fast bowler Arshdeep Singh proved to be expensive and he conceded 41 runs in his four overs. On the other hand, Avesh Khan gave 23 runs in 3 overs. Surya’s decision to make fast bowlers bowl in the death overs proved costly for Team India and they had to face their second T20I defeat in 2024.

By winning the second T20 match, South Africa has leveled the 4 match series 1-1. India had won the first match by 61 runs. The third match will be played on November 13 at the Supersport Park Stadium in Centurion.