South Africa carried on with their winning momentum as they defeated India by four wickets in the second T20I in Cuttack to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match series. The Proteas chased down 149 with 10 balls to spare with Henrich Klaasen scoring 81 off 46 balls with the help of 7 fours and 5 sixes. During the Indian innings, Axar Patel was promoted ahead of Dinesh Karthik, a move which didn’t really work and received flak from fans on Twitter. Speaking at a press conference after the game, batter Shreyas Iyer explained the decision, saying that the need of the hour was to rotate strike as compared to hitting fours and sixes.
Axar scored 10 runs off 11 balls before being dismissed by Anrich Nortje in the 17th over of the innings.
Dinesh Karthik remained unbeaten on 30 off 21 balls and it was his knock that helped India go past the 140-run mark.
“See, it is definitely something we strategised earlier on as well. We had seven overs left, Axar Patel is someone who can take singles, who can keep rotating the strike and we did not require someone to come in and straight away start hitting from ball one at that point of time. Even DK can do that, obviously but, DK has been a real good asset for us after 15 overs where he can come in and straight away slog the ball,” said Shreyas during a post-match press conference.
“Even he was finding it difficult today to start on. The wicket played a huge role in today’s game, I feel that strategy we will be utilising in the next game as well, that’s what we have been thriving on. If you see the past games, we have done this move plenty of times so yeah, it is one of those days,” he added.
In the second T20I, South Africa won the toss and opted to bowl. India posted 148/6 in 20 overs with Shreyas Iyer top-scoring with 40.
Dinesh Karthik remained unbeaten on 30 off 21 balls. For South Africa, Anrich Nortje returned with two wickets.
Promoted
India were unable to defend the total even after Bhuvneshwar Kumar took four wickets.
India and South Africa will next square off in the third T20I on Tuesday.
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