Finance
Tristan Stubbs overshadowed Varun Chakaravarthy’s astonishing five-fer with a courageous performance of an unbeaten 47, leading South Africa to a 3-wicket victory over India in the second T20I at St George’s Park on Sunday.
After India were restricted to 124/6, with Hardik Pandya top-scoring with a scratchy unbroken 39, Chakaravarthy put the visitors ahead with 5-17, his career-best statistics in T20Is. But Stubbs timed his acceleration well and struck seven boundaries in his crucial knock, giving South Africa a dramatic win with an over to spare, tying the four-match series at 1-1.
It also helped Stubbs that he had an able partner in Gerard Coetzee (19 not out off nine balls) to form a 42-run stand for the eighth wicket. South Africa was further helped by the Indian pacers failing to deliver, particularly in the final three overs, with captain Suryakumar Yadav giving Axar Patel only one over with the ball.
Chasing 125, Ryan Rickleton and Reeza Hendricks each hit two boundaries before the former heaved to deep backward square leg off Arshdeep Singh’s slower short ball and fell for 13. Chakaravarthy struck in his first over, casting Aiden Markram with a googly, before grabbing his second wicket by pushing his length back and outwitting Hendricks with another googly.
The googly again yielded success for Chakaravarthy as he castled Marco Jansen right through him in the 11th over. The big match-up between Heinrich Klaasen and Chakaravarthy fell in the leg-spinner’s favour as the batter picked out long-off to perfection.
It was followed by Chakaravarthy getting the ball to drift in and straighten past David Miller’s outside edge to rattle the off-stump and complete his five-fer. Ravi Bishnoi entered the wicket-taker’s column when his googly castled Andile Simelane
Despite Stubbs hanging around, he never found the support from other end till Gerard Coetzee arrived. Coetzee danced down the pitch to club Arshdeep for six, before the duo took a four each off Avesh Khan. Stubbs heaved and edged off Arshdeep for back-to-back fours, before flat-batting and pulling for consecutive boundaries to get a pleasing win for South Africa in front of a carnival-like atmosphere at Gqeberha.
Previously, South Africa’s seamers received early help and took advantage of it by bowling good and short lengths. India’s lack of batting depth meant they could never put South Africa under strain. With some spectacular fielding, the Proteas bowled very effectively to keep the visitors quiet. Except for skipper Aiden Markram, all bowlers got into the wickets column.
India struggled to get off to a good start as Sanju Samson, who had struck consecutive tons, missed an inswing delivery from Marco Jansen and had the top of his leg stump jarred.
Abhishek Sharma, who has been in good shape, escaped a caught behind review from Gerald Coetzee before delivering a huge top-edge on the pull to short fine leg. India plunged into deep trouble in fourth over when Suryakumar Yadav was trapped plumb lbw by a slow yorker from Andile Simelane.
Tilak Varma and Axar joined forces for getting India’s innings back on track with three rollicking boundaries to end power-play at 34/3. But the blossoming 30-run stand was ended when Tilak’s uppish inside-out drive was caught by Miller sticking out his right hand to complete a stunning one-handed catch.
Axar tried stabilising India’s innings with three boundaries, before being run-out for 27. Hardik middled a drive off leg-spinner Nqabayomzi Peter, but the ball took a deflection off his hands and hit the stumps at non-striker’s end. By then, Axar was way outside the crease and was unfortunately run-out.
South Africa successfully managed to stem the run-flow with some tight bowling, along with Hardik and Rinku Singh not being able to find desired timing. The pressure to break free got to Rinku as he went for a slog-sweep off Peter, but gave top-edge to short fine leg.
Hardik eventually found the right connection with his strikes, blasting Coetzee to midwicket for four and thrashing Jansen past cover for four and six. Though Hardik closed the innings with a ramp over the keeper’s head off Jansen to push India past 120, it was insufficient to provide a spectacular climax, as India played 19 dot balls in the final five overs.
Brief Scores: India 124/6 (Hardik Pandya 39 not out, Axar Patel 27; Nqabayomzi Peter 1-20, Andile Simelane 1-20) lost to South Africa 138/7 (Tristan Stubbs 47 not out; Varun Chakaravarthy 5-17) by three wickets.
Source:IANS
