Despite India's three-wicket loss in the second T20I against South Africa, visiting team captain Suryakumar Yadav heaped praise on spinner Varun Chakravarthy for the latter's maiden five-wicket haul in Gqeberha on Sunday, November 10. (Highlights | Scorecard | More Cricket News)
Chakravarthy’s remarkable figures of 5 for 17 had reduced South Africa to 66 for 6 at one point in their 125-run chase, but Tristan Stubbs (47 not out) and Gerald Coetzee (19 not out) stayed there till the end to take the Proteas across the line in 19 overs, halting India’s 11-match victory juggernaut in the process.
"In a T20, someone getting a five-for while defending 125 is incredible. Varun has been waiting for this for a long time, working hard on his bowling, and everyone enjoyed it," Suryakumar said during the post-match presentation.
Asked to bat first, India struggled, posting just 124 for six on the board. "You always have to back whatever total you get. Of course, in a T20 game you don't wanna get 120, but proud of the way we bowled," Suryakumar said. "Two games to go, lot of entertainment left. 1-1 going into Jo'burg gonna be a lot of fun," he added.
South Africa skipper Aiden Markram lauded the home bowlers for their smart execution of plans. "I thought we bowled really well, some really good plans and our bowlers executed really well," he said.
"From the batting point of view, you want to break it at the mid-way stage but it didn't work out. Sometimes when you lose wickets in a cluster it doesn't look pretty. We need to take it on the chin, we are definitely going to keep our brand of cricket going," Markram added.
Chasing the paltry total, South Africa were seven down for 86 before Stubbs and Coetzee added 42 runs for the eighth wicket to take them home. "Fortunately the run rate never got away from us. I had 30 (runs) in mind to get off the last three, and the dew came in to help us also," said Stubbs, who was adjudged the Player of the Match.
"Coetzee came in and played that innings in the end and we got over the line. He (Coetzee) walked in and said we can win this. It was always two hits away being back to run-a-ball.
"I just tried to breathe. It's my mom's birthday so there were 20-30 people who came to watch the game. This is my favourite place to play cricket. I was nervous, so I was trying to control by breathing."
(With PTI inputs)
