After David Miller starred with the bat with a brilliant fifty, South Africa used the ball with technical skill to suffocate India and win by a commanding 76 runs in their Group 1 Super Eights encounter of the T20 World Cup in Ahmedabad on Sunday.
In a rematch of the last edition’s final, South Africa also ended India’s 12-match winning streak at the T20 World Cup.
Choosing to bat, South Africa scored 187/7, before the Aiden Markram-led team outwitted India and bowled the co-hosts out for 111 in 18.5 overs, with Marco Jansen collecting 4/22.
After in-form opener Ishan Kishan fell for a duck in the first over by Markram, Abhishek Sharma also fell for 15 off 12 balls, though ending his streak of three consecutive ducks (2×4, 1×6). After hitting a boundary off Markram, he punched a full toss past cover point and upper-cut Kagiso Rabada for six.
However, Corbin Bosch took a spectacular catch off Marco Jansen to conclude his stay at the crease. The lanky pacer took two wickets in six overs as India struggled to 31/3 during the powerplay.
As the required run-rate continued to rise and India continued to lose wickets at regular intervals, Bosch made significant inroads after taking the blinder and put an end to the fight of Washington Sundar (11) and Suryakumar Yadav (18).
Lungi Ngidi conceded just 12 runs in his three overs to thwart India’s comeback despite taking no wickets. Ngidi, with his unconventional, slower ones, was outstanding in the middle overs to choke India, even as Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube were attempting to accelerate the scoring.
However, immediately after the drinks break in the 15th over, wily left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj took 3 wickets in one over, dismissing Hardik Pandya (18), Rinku Singh (0) and Arshdeep Singh (0) to all but guarantee the Proteas victory.
Dube top scored for India with a 37-ball 42 smashing 3 sixes and a four and his was the ninth wicket to fall as India were bowled out for 111 in 18.5 overs.
Earlier, South Africa overcame an early stutter to post 187/7 thanks to a counter-attacking 63 from David Miller.
Miller and Dewald Brevis, who scored 45, put up 97 after South Africa, batting first after winning the toss, fell to 20/3. India’s bowlers claimed late wickets with Jasprit Bumrah recording outstanding figures of 3/15 while peppering the batters with yorkers in the final overs.
Bumrah bowled Quinton de Kock for 6 at the beginning, while captain Aiden Markram was dismissed for 4 by fellow quick Arshdeep Singh. Prior to Miller silencing a crowd of about 80,000 in a stadium with a stated capacity of 130,000, Ryan Rickelton was also dismissed by left-armer Arshdeep.
Brevis joined in the batting assault, and the two of them each hit 3 sixes. Before Miller hit 50, Brevis faced 29 balls before being caught at deep midwicket by Shivam Dube.
After facing 35 balls and hitting 7 fours, he fell while attempting another huge shot off Varun Chakravarthy. In a late cameo, Tristan Stubbs hit the last two balls of the innings by Hardik Pandya for sixes, smashing an unbeaten 44 off 24 balls.
