IND vs SA | Twitter impressed as Quinton De Kock and Ottneil Baartman power South Africa to 51-run win

‌South Africa pulled off a statement 51-run win over India in the second T20I in Mullanpur to level the five-match series. Quinton de Kock top-scored for the Proteas smashing seven sixes and five fours during his 46-ball 90 to power them to 213/4 before Ottneil Baartman led a disciplined bowling attack with afour-wicket haul to bowl the hosts out for 162 with five balls to spare.

After being put into bat at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium, the Proteas had a cautious start, managing just 10 runs in the first two overs, despite De Kock scoring a six off Arshdeep Singh in the first. The Proteas batter continued to target the left-arm pacer with a six and four in his next before partner Reeza Hendricks also joined with a powerful pulled six off Jasprit Bumrah. Though the southpaw ended Bumrah’s over with another six, Hendricks was cleaned up by Varun Chakravarthy in the first ball of the next. However, that did not have any impact on the Proteas wicketkeeper as he greeted Axar Patel with a six, pushing his team to 53/1 at the end of the powerplay. Soon, he brought up his fifty, in just 26 balls, with a boundary off Hardik Pandya in the ninth over. With Arshdeep straying in his line after conceding a first-ball six to De Kock, the Proteas benefited from a marathon 13-ball over that cost 18 and took them past the 100-run mark. Though captain Aiden Markram departed after back-to-back sixes off Varun, De Kock looked in sublime touch plundering 17 runs from Hardik Pandya’s third over. However, he was unlucky to miss out on a well-deserved century with Jitesh Sharma showing quick reflexes behind the stumps to catch him short of his crease. However, David Miller and Donovan Ferreira joined hands to take the side past 200 with entertaining unbeaten cameos. Ferreira had three sixes and a four in his 16-ball 30, while Miller had 20 off 12 as the visitors amassed 49 runs in the last three overs to set India a target of 214 runs. For India, Varun picked up 2/29 in his four overs, while Axar Patel chipped in with a wicket.

Teh Indian innings started on the wrong foot with both openers Shubman Gill and Abhishek Sharma back in the hut inside two overs with the score reading just 19. Though captain Suryakkumar Yadav also departed cheaply in the fourth, Tilak Varma looked aggressive with a boundary and a six off Lutho Sipamla as the Men in Blue ended the powerplay at 51/3. He continued unabated as Axar struggled from the other end before being dismissed for 21-ball 21. The Mumbai Indians batter smashed sixes off Sipamla, George Linde and Lungi Ngidi with the last of them bringing up a 27-ball half-century. However, his skipper at Mumbai Indians, Hardik was having an indifferent outing with the bat scoring just 20 off 23 balls with the equation bulging to 91 runs in the final five overs with only fve wickets in hand. Though Tilak and Jitesh tried taking the game deep with big hits against the Proteas’ bowlers during their 39-run stand in 21 balls, it was too late as the game headed only in one direction. Tilak was the last batter to depart with five sixes and two fours to score 62 off 34, while Jitesh hit two sixes and two fours during his cameo of 27 off 17 balls. Baartman was the pick among the Proteas bowlers with a spell of 4/24 in four overs with Marco Jansen, Ngidi and Sipamla all ending with two wickets.

Sad state

Shubman Gill🤣 

— Abhishek (@be_mewadi) 

Too bad

Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav ki form 

— Raja Babu (@GaurangBhardwa1) 

Poor Gill

Poor Gill, he's paying for the sins of the selectors, the board, the sponsors and Indian cricket's greed to make him a bigger brand than cricketer.

— Gaurav Sethi (@BoredCricket) 

Super flexible

Flexibility ke naam pe ek hi player hai Axar Patel. Every time you see a fire, you send Axar to do the fire fighting.

Sending in Axar in the first over, can’t happen for me. 

— Rahul Rawat (@rawatrahul9) 

Obvious

C and VC quota.

Never been this obvious.

When Churya said don't want to change combination, he meant C and VC.

— (Vi)Root (@topgun_mav11) 

Can't believe it

This is an absolute murder of what was a great T20 team only a few months ago. Cannot believe what the team management has done to an absolute beast of a machine. Once capable of scoring 240 with ease now struggling for this. Shameful. Absolute shameful. 

— Anuj Nitin Prabhu (@APTalksCricket) 

Justive time

This picture breaks my heart!!



One guy is so relaxed as he knows nothing gonna happen to him & other is looking destroyed💔 

— Rajiv (@Rajiv1841) 

Illegal

Varun C is illegal.

I don’t know how Brook will play him in the T20 WCs.

— 🍓 (@19cric) 

Poor form

2 years peak against North korea and south korea and they said he's better than Kohli in T20is 😭😭 

— M. (@IxonicKohli) 

Ever since

Ever since star sports have started silly puke worthy Sky ball ads Sky hasn't been at his best. Anyway thank god we have matches against Netherland and Usa

— Archer (@poserarcher)