India have successfully rebounded from defeat in the previous game, with a brilliant century from skipper Suryakumar Yadav spearheading a clinical all-round masterclass.
The Proteas bowled first for the second time in as many games. But the shoe was on the other foot today, as Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill got the ball rolling with several boundaries in the first three overs.
Keshav Maharaj got two wickets in two balls in the 3rd over, but that didn’t stop Jaiswal and the captain from counterattacking with style and brute force.
Suryakumar had a relatively sedate start to the innings, but he took apart Andile Phehlukwayo to reach a 33-ball half-century – slightly quicker than Jaiswal.
After Jaiswal’s wicket in the 14th over, it looked like South Africa was starting to claw their way back in. However, Suryakumar completed his 4th century in this format. No bowler went unpunished.
The hosts may have inflicted a mini-collapse at the back end, but India still comfortably reached the 200 mark at halftime.
SA got off to a forgettable start, as Breetzke was bowled in the second over. Two overs later, the in-form Reeza Hendricks was run out.
The misery piled on, as Heinrich Klaasen holed out in the deep, and Aiden Markram’s dangerous beginning was cut short to a brief cameo.
David Miller and Donovan Ferreira hit three sixes between them, but the Indian spinners were very much in control. The surface wasn’t conducive to a whole lot of bounce, and the introduction of Kuldeep Yadav kicked off a rapid procession.
Kuldeep managed to generate prodigious turn off the wicket, accounting for Ferreira’s dismissal and a lower-order slide. He would go on to claim his second 5-wicket haul in T20Is, coincidentally a very fitting birthday present.
The series has been squared with one win apiece, and the ODIs begin on Sunday, at the same venue.
ND 201/7 in 20 overs (Suryakumar 100, Jaiswal 60 – Maharaj 4-0-26-2)
SA 95 in 13.5 overs (Miller 35 – Kuldeep 2.5-0-17-5)
Photo: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix
