India tasted its first defeat in the T20 World Cup 2022. It was a costly defeat as well. This loss exposed the weaknesses of Indian batting and fielding abilities. But the credit goes to the brilliance of South African bowlers, who completely rattled the Indian batting lineup. Their stunning effort gave their team a five-wicket victory. South Africa’s win also virtually kicks Pakistan out of the tournament. This win also made South Africa go to the top position of the Group 2’s points table.
Once again, Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul failed to make a big partnership. Both of them departed pretty early in the bowling of Lungi Ngidi. Within no time, he also dismissed Virat Kohli. Then comes Anrich Nortje and gets Deepak Hooda out for a duck. Soon, Ngidi takes the wicket of Hardik Pandya. All of sudden, the score became 49/5. That’s when Surya Kumar Yadav (68 off 40 balls) anchored the innings with Dinesh Karthik. Both of them made a partnership of 52 runs for the sixth wicket. Later, Karthik got out. While others were struggling to score on that pitch, SKY played beautiful shots and troubled South African bowlers. That shows why he is the best batter in T20 cricket right now. With the help of his sensational knock, India was able to make 133/9 in 20 overs. While Ngidi scalped four wickets (4/29), Wayne Parnell took three wickets (3/15) for South Africa.
South Africa also got a disastrous start during the chase. Arshdeep Singh (2/25) scalped the wickets of Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw right in his first over. Soon, Temba Bavuma also got out. The score was 24/3 at that point. That’s when Aiden Markram (52) and David Miller (59* off 46 balls) made a partnership of 76 runs and turned the game in their favour. After getting multiple lives, Markram finally got out in the 16th over, after scoring a half-century. But David Miller stayed till the end and gave a win to his team. He scored a half-century as well and helped his team in scoring 137/5 in 19.4 overs.
India will play its next match against Bangladesh on November 2. South Africa will take on Pakistan on November 3.
