South Africa bowlers put on a collective show to restrict India to 148/6, before Heinrich Klaasen stroked a 46-ball 81 to power his side to a comfortable four-wicket win in the second T20I in Cuttack on June 12.
Heinrich Klaasen, one of South Africa’s two replacements in the game, played a game-defining knock. By the time he was dismissed for an 81 off 46 by Harshal Patel in the 17th over, the game was well and truly sealed for South Africa. He struck seven hits to the fence and five over it, never really offering India a chance to fight back after Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s early triple strikes.
The right-hander walked in at the fall of Rassie van der Duseen in the sixth over of the 149-run chase, and lifted his side from 29/3 to 93/3 with a solid 64-run stand with Temba Bavuma, who steadied the ship with a 30-ball 35.
The South Africa skipper was castled by Yuzvendra Chahal in the 13th over, reviving hopes of an Indian comeback. However, another brisk 51-run stand between Klaasen and the in-form David Miller followed, off just 4.4 overs, with the latter hitting the winning runs to finish unbeaten 20 off 15.
South Africa’s run-chase got off to a poor start, with Bhuvneshwar sending back Reeza Hendricks, Dwaine Pretorious and van der Dussen in an impressive new-ball burst. Hendricks and VDD were undone by sharp inswingers, seeing their stumps clatter, while Pretorius was holed out at deep square leg in a bid to up the scoring. Bhuvneshwar would later clean up Kagiso Rabada to round off an impressive outing of 4/13, but it was all too late by then.
Earlier, it was Dinesh Karthik’s late flourish that propelled India to a first-innings total of 148/6 after they had been reduced to 98/5 in the 14th over. Karthik smashed two fours and as many sixes during his unbeaten 30 off 21, the two maximums coming off Pretorious in the final over of the innings. Harshal Patel, too, chipped in with two crucial boundaries in the closing stages.
The Indian innings didn’t get off to a great start, with Rabada having Ruturaj Gaikwad caught at backward point on the fifth ball of the innings to get to 50 T20I wickets. He became the fourth South African to reach the milestone, after Dale Steyn, Imran Tahir and Tabriaz Shamsi.
Ishan Kishan, who’d tonked 76 off 48 in the series opener in Delhi, threatened to put up another impactful show, striking two fours and three sixes while taking on the speedsters. However, he was bounced out by Anrich Nortje, mistiming a pull down to a deep backward square leg.
Rishabh Pant played an untimely hoick off Keshav Maharaj, while Hardik Pandya was castled by a brilliant incoming ball by Wayne Parnell, which sent his leg-stump cartwheeling.
Shreyas Iyer top-scored for India with a 35-ball 40, showing great skills against spin once again, before being caught behind off Pretorius in the 14th over. Rabada returned a miserly 1/15 from four overs, while Nortje cleaned up Axar for 10 to return 2/36.
The third T20I will be played at the Dr Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on June 14.
Brief scores
India 148/6 (Iyer 40, Kishan 34, Nortje 2/36, Rabada 1/15) lose to South Africa 149/6 from 18.2 overs (Klaasen 81, Bavuma 35, Kumar 4/13) by four wickets.
