Aiden Markram won the toss and elected to bat first, noting that the pitch looked great for batting. Suryakumar Yadav also said that he would have batted first if he had won the toss. However, it was India who dominated proceedings early in the clash.
jasprit bumrah got the better from Quinton de Kock in the second over, and Arshdeep Singh dismissed Aidne Markram in the over that followed. Bumrah was in no mood to give in to the pressure he had created beforehand, and he dismissed Ryan Rickelton in his second over.
South Africa were staring down the score at 20/3, but David Miller and Dewald Brevis brought them back into the match with a stunning partnership of 97 runs off 50 balls. Miller was the more aggressive hitter in the stand as he counter-attacked with flair. Brevis took his time putting his eye in and later delivered some lustful blows.
Shivam Dube broke the dangerous partnership as he dismissed Brevis for 45 off 29 balls. However, Miller continued his dominance and was eventually dismissed in the 16th over after smashing 63 off 35 deliveries.
However, India continued to pick crucial wickets at the end of the innings even as Tristan Stubbs held firm. The South African batsman smashed Hardik Pandya for 20 runs in the last over to take his team to a decent 187/7 in 20 overs.
Bumrah was the favorite among the bowlers for India as he finished with mind-boggling figures of 3/15 in his four overs. Fellow pacer Arshdeep Singh also picked up two wickets.
In reply, Markram started proceedings with three dot balls to Ishan Kishan, and the pressure forced the in-form batsman into a wild stroke. The ball went high into the air and was safely pocketed by Rickelton, who had to return slightly from cover to take the catch.
Marco Jansen was brought on to bowl the second over and he hit the ground running, dismissing Tilak Varma from the very first ball he bowled. Abhishek Sharma was given a start but was dismissed by Corbin Bosch’s brilliance on the field.
Suryakumar Yadav and Washington Sundar tried to steady the ship but the required run-rate continued to rise. Ultimately, both batters succumbed to the pressure. Ultimately, India were bowled out for 11 in 18.5 overs. Dube top scored with a 37-ball 42. Jansen and Maharaj were the stars with the ball for the Proteas. They took four and three wickets respectively.
Shivam Dube and Hardik Pandya forged a partnership of 35 runs off 30 balls but South Africa were in control. When Hardik was over in the 15th over, the writing was on the wall.
Who said what?
David Miller, Player of the Match
Just to make sure you stick to your strengths and don’t go into your shell. During the power play, all the fielders were in the ring, so I thought about going over. We try to get a partnership as much as possible and try to rotate the strike. (Key Scoring Areas) Given the nature of this terrain, you’ll want to look straight. There smaller than square. Do you want to shape to hit straight and then respond. I want to be nice and aggressive with the spinners. They have world class bowlers. I played against them a lot, trying to put pressure on them and put yourself in a position to do that.
Suryakumar Yadav, India (losing captain)
I feel like we were always in the game when we started. I think we bowled really well in the beginning, 21 to 3, and the way they batted from 7 to 15 after that, I think they batted really well, and then we came back into the game later. Overall, if we see, we bowled very well, but we could have batted a little better. My thing is sometimes you have to think, if you chase 180-185, you can’t win the game in the power play, but you might lose the game in the power play. We lost too many wickets in the powerplay and then we couldn’t have the little, little partnerships that we wanted to have in chasing 180-185, but that’s part of the game. We learn from it, we sit back and come back stronger. I think everyone knows that their combination (Bumrah-Arshdeep) has been very deadly. Both have played together. If you see today too, they both bowled eight overs, picked about five wickets and gave about 45-50 runs. If I’m right, I’m not good with numbers. But they bowl very well in partnership and that is what we expect from them. Both have experience and it is good to have them both by our side. Hopefully bat well, bowl well and field well (Talking about the plans for the next match against Zimbabwe). That’s it. We will try to keep it simple, play the same brand of cricket that we want to play and nothing will change. I think we will come back strong.
Aiden Markram, South Africa (winning captain)
Great performance. A very different type of wicket to what we’ve had here, so great to see the boys recognizing that quite early on and adapting their skills to execute their plans. We are very excited about the bowling group. They worked hard and started the game a little heavy, but the way they performed tonight was a big effort. I think the partnership was first and foremost. (Miller and Brevis) The guys were great, putting that together for us, steadying the ship and keeping us in the game. Talk at the back was that the ball was traveling tonight and felt almost a bit spongy, so it was about finding space where we could run hard, drop the ego and take as much as we could at the back. They bowled well up front and at the death too, but I thought our hitting through the middle was probably the difference. Good effort in the field. We put up two, but not for lack of effort. Against the UAE we were probably not as connected as we would like, but that presence and connection was much better today. We are going to make mistakes, we don’t mind that as a group, so we put them aside. We feel Lungi is a threat when he bowls and he can take wickets for us in those middle phases. It depends on the conditions – if we feel it won’t do much with the new ball, we’d rather hold it back, but if there’s something in it, he’ll get something out of the wicket. We will assess it on matchdays and give him that role. He is happy to do anything, a real team man, and he just keeps delivering. I think it’s the same for both teams who played each other recently (talking about their next match against West Indies). They are a dangerous T20 side playing good cricket so we will enjoy this tonight, park and sharpen our minds for that West Indies clash. It’s a big game for us and we don’t want to take trust or a good atmosphere for granted. Important to get up on the 28th and go at it full speed.
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