Varun's fifer in vain as SA beats IND by 3 wickets in 2nd T20, series level 1-1

A low-scoring match between India and South Africa resulted in sorrow for the fans of Men In Blue as the Proteas clinched victory by 3 wickets in the 2nd T20I. The leg-spinner returned figures of 5 for 17 in his four overs to make the Proteas struggle in their chase of a below-par target of 125 runs. The hosts were 86 for 7 at one stage but an unbeaten partnership of 42 runs between Tristan Stubbs (47 off 41) and Gerald Coetzee (19 off 9) took them home.

Earlier, brilliant fast bowling, aided with spin, helped South Africa restrict India to 124 for 6. Hardik Pandya was the top scorer for the visitors with an unbeaten 39-run knock. Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Andile Simelane, Aiden Markram, and Nqabayomzi Peter took a wicket each after South Africa captain Markram won the toss and opted to bowl.

During the post-match presentation, the Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav said, "You always have to back whatever total you get. Of course, in a T20 game, you don't want to get 125 or 140 but I'm proud of the way our boys bowled. In a T20 game someone getting a 5-fer in this situation, it's incredible. He worked hard on his game and he has been waiting for his stage. Brilliant performance from him. Two games to go, a lot of entertainment left and it will be fun at Jo'burg."

A much happier Aiden Markram, the winning captain, said, "I thought we bowled really well, some really good plans and our bowlers executed really well. From the batting point of view, you want to break it at the mid-way stage but it didn't work out. Sometimes it doesn't work out and we need to take it on the chin, we are going to stick to our brand of cricket. Really proud of course, the role Simlalane and Peter played was massive. To all the guys on the younger side, they inspired the older guys. We need to take one game at at time. We won this game to level the series."

Squads:

South Africa Playing XI: Ryan Rickelton, Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram (c), Tristan Stubbs, Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Marco Jansen, Andile Simelane, Gerald Coetzee, Keshav Maharaj, Nqabayomzi Peter

India Playing XI: Sanju Samson (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Varun Chakaravarthy, Avesh Khan