The Indian cricket team had a forgettable outing in the second T20I against South Africa in Cuttack on Sunday. After the hosts’ batters had put up 148/6 in 20 overs, the bowlers could not produce something magical as the Proteas reached the target in 18.2 overs. Only Bhuvneshwar Kumar played really well taking 4/13 in four overs but most of the other Indian bowlers were costly. Star India leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was the costliest as he returned with figures of 4-0-49-1.
Chahal was hit for three sixes by Heinrich Klassen (81, 46b) in the 16th over, which produced 23 runs. Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar feels it’s a “psychological blow” for Chahal.
“It’s a psychological blow for the next game as well. In the next game Chahal will be thinking what line he should be bowling. May be give the ball bit of air, or should he be bowling slightly wide off the arc. All these things will be something that Chahal will have to think about,” Gavaskar said on Star Sports after the match.
“Or, the Indian bowlers as well. They just have one day before the next game. Tomorrow is a travel day. This is what they need to look into. It’s the bowling that needs to tighten up a little bit because when they are conceding runs, they are conceding 13-15 runs in an over. When you are conceding two boundaries in an over but overall you are conceding eight or nine, that’s still okay. Looking at something like conceding something like 13, 15, 20…that becomes difficult then.”
In the match, Klaasen followed Rassie Van der Dussen’s suit in turning out to be an unlikely hero with a career-best 81 as South Africa once again outwitted India by four wickets on a tricky pitch to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match T20I series here on Sunday.
On a two-paced track where most of the batters struggled, Klaasen made it look ridiculously easy as he smashed seven fours and five towering sixes in his 46-ball knock to hep his team knock off a target of 149 with 10 balls to spare.
The wicketkeeper-batter, who was included into the side as a forced change for injured Quinton de Kock, completed his fourth T20I fifty in 32 balls before he smashed three sixes off Yuzvendra Chahal to virtually seal the chase.
Looking to finish it off with a six, he fell victim to Harshal Patel and in the very next over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Wayne Parnell to finish with a superb 4-0-13-4.
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But it was not enough as they just needed three runs from the last two overs and the in-form David Miller (20 not out) completed the win to give the Proteas a commanding 2-0 lead going into the Vizag T20I on June 14.
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