After India were kept to 124/6, with Hardik Pandya top-scoring via a scratchy unbeaten 39, Chakaravarthy got the visitors’ ahead by picking 5-17, his career-best figures in T20Is. But Stubbs timed his acceleration to perfection and hit seven boundaries in his vital knock to give South Africa a thrilling win with an over to spare, as the hosts’ have now squared the four-match series 1-1.
It also helped Stubbs that he found an able partner in Gerard Coetzee (19 not out off nine balls) to stitch a stand of 42 runs for the eighth wicket. What also helped South Africa was the Indian pacers not being up to the mark, especially in the last three overs and captain Suryakumar Yadav giving Axar Patel just one over with the ball.
Chasing 125, Ryan Rickleton and Reeza Hendricks hit two boundaries each, before the former heaved to deep backward square leg off a slower short ball from Arshdeep Singh and fall for 13. Chakaravarthy struck in his first over by castling Aiden Markram with a googly, before taking his second wicket by pulling his length back and outsmarting Hendricks with another googly.
The googly again yielded success for Chakaravarthy as he castled Marco Jansen right through him in the 11th over. The big match-up between Heinrich Klaasen and Chakaravarthy fell in the leg-spinner’s favour as the batter picked out long-off to perfection.
It was followed by Chakaravarthy getting the ball to drift in and straighten past David Miller’s outside edge to rattle the off-stump and complete his five-fer. Ravi Bishnoi entered the wicket-taker’s column when his googly castled Andile Simelane
Despite Stubbs hanging around, he never found the support from other end till Gerard Coetzee arrived. Coetzee danced down the pitch to club Arshdeep for six, before the duo took a four each off Avesh Khan. Stubbs heaved and edged off Arshdeep for back-to-back fours, before flat-batting and pulling for consecutive boundaries to get a pleasing win for South Africa in front of a carnival-like atmosphere at Gqeberha.
Previously, South Africa’s seamers got early help and capitalised on it to get wickets by resorting more to bowling good and short lengths. The lack of batting depth meant India could never put South Africa under pressure. Backed by some scintillating fielding, the Proteas bowled exceptionally well to keep the visitors’ quiet. Barring skipper Aiden Markram, all bowlers got into the wickets’ column.
Pushed into batting first, India didn’t have a flying start as Sanju Samson, who scored consecutive tons, missed an inswing delivery from Marco Jansen and saw the top of leg-stump being rattled.
Abhishek Sharma, who has been in lean form, survived a caught behind review off Gerald Coetzee, before giving a big top-edge on the pull to short fine leg. India plunged into deep trouble in fourth over when Suryakumar Yadav was trapped plumb lbw by a slow yorker from Andile Simelane.
Tilak Varma and Axar joined forces for getting India’s innings back on track with three rollicking boundaries to end power-play at 34/3. But the blossoming 30-run stand was ended when Tilak’s uppish inside-out drive was caught by Miller sticking out his right hand to complete a stunning one-handed catch.
Axar tried stabilising India’s innings with three boundaries, before being run-out for 27. Hardik middled a drive off leg-spinner Nqabayomzi Peter, but the ball took a deflection off his hands and hit the stumps at non-striker’s end. By then, Axar was way outside the crease and was unfortunately run-out.
South Africa successfully managed to stem the run-flow with some tight bowling, along with Hardik and Rinku Singh not being able to find desired timing. The pressure to break free got to Rinku as he went for a slog-sweep off Peter, but gave top-edge to short fine leg.
Hardik finally got the proper connection in his shots by whipping Coetzee to mid-wicket for four, before thumping Jansen through cover for four and six. Though Hardik ended the innings with a ramp over the keeper’s head off Jansen to take India past 120, it was too little to give a great finishing flourish, as India played 19 dot balls in last five overs.
Brief Scores: India 124/6 (Hardik Pandya 39 not out, Axar Patel 27; Nqabayomzi Peter 1-20, Andile Simelane 1-20) lost to South Africa 138/7 (Tristan Stubbs 47 not out; Varun Chakaravarthy 5-17) by three wickets
--IANS
