T20 World Cup 2022: South Africa beat India by five wickets

Aiden Markram and David Miller guide South Africa to a morale-boosting five-wicket victory over India after pacers Ngidi Lungi and Wayne Parnell broke the famed batting line-up of the Men in Blue in a thrilling, low-scoring Group 2 match at the Perth Stadium on Sunday.

Chasing a small target of 134, the South African batters ran into early trouble when the young left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh dismissed the two in-form batters, Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw and Shami followed it up with the wicket of Temba Bavuma.

Markram and Miller showed the patience and mental strength to withstand the hostile bowling on a wicket that made batting extremely difficult. The duo waited to launch the assault until the 10-over mark and immediately went on an all-out attack to bring the climbing run rate down.

The Proteas were also assisted by some sloppy catching and a few lucky chances that went South African way, including a couple missed run out chances.

Even though South Africa had some anxious moments towards the end, after the loss of Markram, Miller ensured that he stayed till the end to complete the formalities with an unbeaten 56, off 46 balls.

For India, the dependable Suryakumar Yadav was the sole batter who took the challenge to his rivals and scored a counter-attacking 68 in a total of 133 where the next big score was 15 by Rohit Sharma. All the top Indian batters including skipper Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya tried to take on Ngidi and were outfoxed by the South African pacer.

One of the other highlights of South African bowling was their fielding. The Proteas seldom missed a ball and Kagiso Rabada, who went wicketless, took two brilliant catches at the square leg boundary to dismiss Kohli and Pandya, which really pushed India on the backfoot.

The victory has propelled the South Africans to the top of the table and this result could have repercussions on the qualifications of the other teams, including that of India, though the Men In Blue have to play Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in the final two matches.

Source: Gulf News