IND vs SA: The Protea legend in the making, their coming-of-age batsman, Tristan Stubbs, continued his stellar form for South Africa as he rescued the Proteas from a humiliating defeat in the second T20I vs India.
South Africa, the home team, is currently hosting the Indian side for a four-match T20I series, and all senior players of the T20I squad are unavailable due to the clashing of the series with the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, which is scheduled in Australia from the 22nd of November.
Likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, NK Reddy, Rishabh Pant, and Jasprit Bumrah missed the T20I series, while also some young players Riyan Parag and Shivam Dube have missed the same owing to their respective injuries.
Currently, Suryakumar Yadav has been named the Indian skipper for the shortest format of the game, while Hardik Pandya is the second senior player in the side.
After the first game at the Centurion went in favour of the first batting side, as Sanju Samson wreaked havoc with his magnificent century, South Africa used the poor Gqeberha track to bounce back. Bowling first after having won the toss, South African bowlers Marco Jansen and Gerald Coetzee got rid of the Indian in top order.
Centurion Samson was out for a duck this time, cleaned up by Samson. While Abhishek Sharma, who continues his weak stint for India, skipper SKY, and Rinku all failed to be promising for the Indians.
Hardik Pandya set the finishing tone to a dismaying performance from the Men in Blue, as Pandya smashed a 39-run, which set the tone for 124 runs in the Indian innings.
However, Tilak Varma and Axar Patel looked to give some assurance over the Indian innings, though David Miller with a startling grab clinched the course of the game for the Proteas.
Later, in the batting front, South Africa collapsed again, as Rickelton, Hendricks, Markram, Jansen, and the two veterans Klaasen and Miller were dismissed by Varun Chakravarthy’s spinning expertise, as the Proteas were trembling at 66/6, with only Stubbs at one end.
After Chakravarthy ended his spell for 5/17, South Africans bounced back with Stubbs slowly building onto a total with the tailenders, Simelane and later Coetzee, who smashed 19 runs off just 9 balls, taking South Africa to a 3-wicket victory that levelled the series for the home side.
