The South Africans defied a few expectations, orchestrating a masterclass with bat to defeat India in a rain-shortened match on Tuesday.
As opposed to the previous white ball meetings between the two sides, South Africa was more clear with their approach and thinking in Gqeberha as they chased down the required 152 in 15 overs with 5 wickets and 7 balls to spare.
The series will now move on to the New Wanderers Stadium, Johannesburg for the 3rd and final t20 international.
South Africa
The 2nd T20I turned out to be a perfect start to the Summer for the Proteas side. After winning the toss, Aiden Markram elected to bowl first, and both the Indian openers went out for a duck. However, despite this opening spell effort, the home side’s fast bowlers didn’t perform as expected, and Rinku and Surya smoked them all around the park. The management and captain will desire a more disciplined and controlled bowling by the pace attack as they come closer to the awaited T20 World Cup.
Gerald Coetzee & Tabraiz Shamsi were the pick of the bowlers for Saffas. Even captain Markram himself bowled exceptionally well until the final 2 balls of his spell. His decision to use spinners in the final overs proved to be a wise move in the end.
The run-chase was as perfect as it could get. South Africa will look forward to solidifying their batting as their strength with an aggressive style of play as they did in One Day Cricket this year.
Probable Playing XI: Matthew Breetzke, Reeza Hendricks, Aiden Markram(c), Heinrich Klaasen (wk), David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Donovan Ferreira/Andile Phehlukwayo, Marco Jansen, Gerald Coetzee, Tabraiz Shamsi, Lizaad Williams.
India
The start of India in the 2nd T20I didn’t go as expected. They lost both their openers early in the innings, but Tilak Verma and Surya Kumar did well enough to utilise powerplay and not let the South Africans get over them. India will want their openers to stay for a longer period as they did against Australia so that players like Rinku & Jitesh are not required to construct the innings in middle overs. India scored 58 runs in the last 7 overs of their innings, which could’ve been way more if not for the early wickets and lack of a reliable partner for Rinku Singh at the end. With the current squad, India can only have a batting depth up to no.7, which makes it more important for their top order to stay for longer.
With the bowl, the match flew from India’s hands way too quickly. Breetzke and Reeza gave no chance to any Indian bowler to settle and before one could even realise the South Africans went way ahead with the run-rate. After the runout of Breetzke, the batters who followed continued the assault with the bat, ensuring that India had no chance to make any comeback in the match.
Rain is not expected to interrupt the 3rd T20I at Johannesburg, allowing the Indian bowlers another opportunity to test themselves against a formidable batting lineup before turning their attention to longer formats.
Probable playing XI: Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Verma, Surya Kumar Yadav(c), Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar.
Players To Watch Out For
Matthew Breetzke
Before being unlucky with his dismissal, Breetzke looked promising with his approach in the first t20i. His shots sparked confidence & his thinking was clear. He surely looked on a way to play a beautiful flamboyant innings before getting runout.
He can prove to be the game changer for South Africa in the powerplay in the 3rd T20I as well in the future games that’ll feature him. The Indian fast bowling has been relatively ineffective with the new ball in recent matches, prompting Breetzke to see this as a chance to go on the offensive.
Shubman Gill
Contrasting to his consistent ODI career, Gill has registered 8 single-digit scores in his 12 T20I innings for India. The 24-year-old has not been the same player in T20Is so far as he has been in ODIs and IPL apart from his century against New Zealand at Ahmedabad.
Gill surely has the potential to be a consistent and evergreen T20I batter. With the enormous talent he possesses, eventually, he’ll adapt and perform well for India in this format. Tomorrow India will play their final T20I of the year & Gill would like to wrap it up on a wonderful note before moving onto his preferred format of the game.
Dream11 Team for SA vs IND 3rd T20I 2023
Note: This is not our final Dream11 Team as we are not aware of the Toss Result/Final Playing XI of both teams at this moment.
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