India vs South Africa 2nd T20I: Suryakumar Yadav’s fireworks light up Team India’s victory | Cricket News

Miller ton in vain as India claim T20I’s first home streak against South Africa with 16 wins
On the eve of the game, social media was full of people asking everyone to pray to goddess Durga for a rainless Sunday. The weather was nice but no one could have ever imagined that there would be a malfunction of the reflectors or a snake that would sneak into the ground!
IT HAPPENED
In the end, those two incidents turned out to be only pit stops as India took a 16-run win to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-game series. This was also India’s first win in the T20 International series against South Africa at home.
There was no way to stop the Indian batters at a placid Barsapara Cricket Stadium. Captain of South Africa Temba Bavuma had asked his Indian counterpart Rohit Sharma to beat first after winning the draw, but a little toothless bowling and smaller limits didn’t help the Protea cause as India hit a daunting 237/3, with 178 scored within the limits (25 four, 13 six).

Pursuing a whopping 238, South Africa got two early shocks, losing their captain Temba Bavuma and Rilee Rossouw by just one point on the scoreboard.

It ultimately proved costly when wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock (69 not out 48 balls) and D avid Miller (a spectacular, unbeaten 106 of 47) combined a 174-point unbeaten run to bring SA very close to target.

India won comfortably, but their death bowling remains a concern in Jasprit Bumrah’s absence. All the bowlers except Deepak Chahar were taken to the laundry. Arshdeep Singh was the most expensive with 62 four-over runs even after throwing an excellent first over, taking two wickets for just five runs.

India’s hero of the day was the fit man Suryakumar Yadav, who once again did justice to his growing reputation by scoring 61 out of 22 balls, while the vice captain KL Rahul hitting a fluid 57 out of 28 balls. Virat Kohli was stuck close to his fifties as India-designated finisher Dinesh Karthik took the stage in the last two overs, scoring two sixes and a four.

Rohit Sharma (43 balls out of 37), playing his 400th T20 game, started the game by hitting one at the fence in the first delivery thrown by Kagis Rabada, but it was his deputy and opening partner KL Rahul who took the fast lane from the start. He was the attacker while Rohit built his inning before falling into the penultimate ball of the tenth over with 96 points on board.

Rahul ran for half a century in a row with just 24 balls, hitting Aiden Markram for a long time on the second level. Visitors were to be blamed for some rebellious bowling, but even so, Suryakumar showed his ‘360 degree’ prowess, hitting shots all over the place.

Except vice-captain of SA Kehsav Maharajwho is back with figures of 2-23 from his share of four overs, no other South African bowler could hold India’s batters, with Rabada being the most expensive, giving away 57 points from his four overs.