India beat South Africa in the second T20I by 7 wickets and take a 1-0 lead in the series. The third and final match of the series will be played on Sunday.
India 151 for 3 (Kohli 72*, Dhawan 40) beat South Africa 149 for 5 (de Kock 52, Bavuma 49, Chahar 2-22) by seven wickets
Virat Kohli led from the front for India in the second T20I against South Africa in Mohali on Wed. Kohli scored 72* as India won by 7 wickets with one over remaining. This is 1st time India have beaten South Africa in a T20I in India.
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Kohli also became the highest run-scorer in T20Is in the course of his match-winning innings. He currently has 2441 runs in the format. Rohit Sharma (2434 runs) is currently the second-highest run-scorer in T20Is.
Kohli also became the only batsman to have his batting average above fifty in all 3 formats of the sport in the course of his knock.
Toss: India won the toss and choose to field 1st. The dew has usually been known to be consider the evenings at this venue, so that might have played a part in the decision.
First Innings: South Africa’s new-look batting order was up against a new-look India bowling attack. Quinton de Kock (52) and Temba Bavuma (49) place up a decent partnership for the visitors at the top of the order.
The momentum of the innings changed in the area of a number of balls – courtesy 2 athletic pieces of work in the field, 1st by Kohli then by Ravindra Jadeja. Suddenly, from 88/1 in the 12th over, South Africa found themselves at 90/3 in the 13th over.
There was a major dip in the scoring rate at the moment. However, with some lusty shots being hit in the last over, 16 runs were scored in the 20th over, bowled by Navdeep Saini, South Africa managed to achieve 149/5 in twenty overs.
Second Innings: Rohit Sharma (12), one day short of the 12th anniversary of his T20I debut, smashed 2 sixes to increase his record for the most sixes hit in the format, however had very little impact otherwise. Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan (40) shared a 61-run stand after Rohit’s wicket. As India looked to be chasing down the target with minimum fuss. a powerful one-handed blinder on the boundary line by David Miller brought an end to Dhawan’s stay.
Rishabh Pant fell cheaply shortly after. Shreyar Iyer joined Kohli at the moment as the India skipper took on the responsibility of finishing the match off. Kohli finished at 72* whereas the winning runs came off Iyer’s bat.
Virat Kohli is the Man of the Match: You reminded me of the best T20 game of my career so I got extra motivation from that (on the World T20 match against Australia, to Manjrekar). Slightly different pitch today. That’s always going to be a sweet memory, but this one’s nice as well. Bowlers showed lot of character. The pitch was very good and they got off to a good start so it was an outstanding effort from the bowler to pull the game back from us. That’s exactly what we’re looking at, try out new people and see who stands up under pressure. (On his consistency) It’s the badge in front of my shirt. It’s a pride to play for my country so whatever it takes to get over the line, I will do. Get the team across the line anyhow. If you want to make your team win, you’ll find a way.
Quinton de Kock: I think we got off to a good start. Towards the end they bowled pretty well, they understood the conditions a lot quicker than we did. (On the debutants) There was a lot of pressure coming in for some of the new guys and I thought they played really well. Obviously we didn’t get a winning start but I thought they held their nerve very well. Unfortunately when there was pace on the ball it looked like it was easier to bat on, so it was about taking the pace off. But then they batted really well. I’ve had some time off since the World Cup so I was nice and refreshed and quite hungry to get out there.
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