INDIA PANTING
Klaasen’s 81 helps South Africa beat host by four wickets to take 2-0 lead
Comeback man Heinrich Klaasen followed Rassie Van der Dussen’s suit in turning out to be an unlikely hero with a career-best 81 as South Africa once again outwitted India by four wickets on a tricky pitch to take a 2-0 lead in the five-match T20I series here on Sunday.
On a two-paced track where most of the batters struggled, Klaasen made it look ridiculously easy as he smashed seven fours and five towering sixes in his 46-ball knock to help his team knock off a target of 149 with 10 balls to spare.
The wicketkeeper-batter, who was included in the side as a forced change for the injured Quinton de Kock, completed his fourth T20I fifty in 32 balls before he smashed three sixes off Yuzvendra Chahal to virtually seal the chase.
Looking to finish off with a six, he fell victim to Harshal Patel (1/17) and in the very next over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Wayne Parnell to finish with a superb 4-013-4. But, Bhuvneshwar’s spell was not enough as South Africa needed just three runs from the last two overs. David Miller (20 not out) completed the win to give the Proteas a commanding 2-0 lead going into the Vizag T20I on June 14.
Making a comeback after more than seven months, Klaasen never took his foot off the pedal and got his team out of the woods after Bhuvneshwar pegged it back to 29/3 inside the powerplay overs.
No 5 batter Klaasen first shared a match-turning 64-run partnership from 41 balls with skipper Temba Bavuma (35) before the inform Miller joined him in the middle.
Defending a modest 149, the Rishabh Pant-led India got off to a superb start, thanks to Bhuvneshwar’s triple blow in successive overs. Bhuvneshwar, who looked out of sorts in the first T20I, was back in his element as he sharply swung the ball back in to clean up Reeza Hendricks (4) in his first over. He then dismissed Dwaine Pretorius (4) with a knuckle ball before castling Rassie van der Dussen (1).
Earlier, the India batters found it tough to get going against some tight bowling display from South Africa and were restricted to a modest 148 for six. Shreyas Iyer (40 off 35 balls, 2 fours, 2 sixes) was the top-scorer for India while Ishan Kishan provided some early sparks (34 off 21 balls, 2 fours, 3 sixes), but the host lost the momentum in the middle-overs under tough batting conditions.
That in-form finisher Dinesh Karthik was sent way down at No 7, behind Axar Patel, also made it difficult for the new-look India side.
Karthik, the team’s designated finisher (30 not out from 21 balls) smashed two sixes and two fours to give the total some semblance of respectability.
BRIEF SCORES: India 148/6 in 20 overs (S Iyer 40) lost to South Africa 149/6 in 18.2 overs (H Klaasen 81, B Kumar 4/13)