South Africa captain Temba Bavuma admitted that it wasn’t their best performance with the ball as they conceded a huge score of 237 runs in the second T20I against India at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati after they lost by 16 runs. This is also the highest total against South Africa in the T20I format.
The Proteas’ bowlers failed to hit the right areas and they could not execute their plans against the Indian batters. The likes of KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, and Virat Kohli took the visitors’ bowlers to the cleaners as they played at the top of their game.
Recently, there were doubts over KL Rahul’s strike rate but he was able to put that to bed as he scored 57 from 28 balls. Yadav continued his dream form as he brought his fifty off 18 balls and added 102 off just 42 balls with Virat Kohli, who remained unbeaten on 49 runs off 28 balls.
The South African pacers conceded their runs at an economy rate of 13.40, which was the second worse for them in a T20I game.
Kagiso Rabada, Wayne Parnell, Anrich Nortje, and Lungi Ngidi all conceded their runs at an economy rate of more than 12 as they failed to execute their plans.
On the other hand, Quinton de Kock failed to get going in the run-chase while David Miller scored a brilliant knock of 106 runs off 47 balls with the help of eight fours and seven sixes.
Temba Bavuma said in the post-match presentation, “It probably wasn’t our best performance with the ball. Different conditions and different plans were needed. Execution is our plan is where our conversation is going to be. With 220, we were thinking as batters would be good. But 240 was too high. It shows why David Miller is one of the best T20 batters going around. He is looking good, and feeling good and we can draw a lot of confidence from his performance today. Their bowlers got the ball to swing at the top and once it stopped swinging, we saw how easy it was to bat.”
South Africa conceded 104 runs in the last six overs and it was the turning point of the game as the total of 237 was always going to be out of their grasp after they lost two quick wickets.
The third T20I will be played at Indore on Tuesday.
