‘Thanks to Keshav that he chose to bat' - Shikhar Dhawan at his sarcastic best after India's clinical win in 2nd ODI

A high-class performance from the Indian team meant that the target of 279 was chased down with ease in the second ODI in Ranchi and the series is levelled at 1-1 now. The young duo of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer made a merry of the Proteas bowling attack which looked toothless after the new ball spell.  

Having removed Dhawan and Shubman Gill early, the South African bowlers had no answers to the 161-run partnership between Kishan and Iyer for the third wicket. Kishan was unlucky to miss out on a fantastic century by just seven runs, while Iyer got to the well deserved three-figure mark. Sanju Samson remained unbeaten on 30 to take the side home and Iyer was adjudged the player of the match for his unbeaten 113 run-knock.  

Post the win, stand in skipper Shikhar Dhawan left the experts in splits with a hilarious reply to Presenter Murali Karthik who asked about how losing the toss helped him.  

Glad that dew came in at the right time: Shikhar Dhawan

“Shikhar, you wanted to do something different and it worked perfectly well for you at toss,” Karthik asked Dhawan in the post match presentatio

Dhawan replied saying, “Worked perfectly well for us, thanks to Keshav that he chose to bat. Glad that dew came in at the right time.”  Both of them had a good laugh about the statement from Dhawan who credited the opponent skipper for choosing to bat. 

Shikhar Dhawan further noted the game-changing partnership between the young duo and hailed them for batting through the tough phase. He added that the plan was to attack in the powerplay and revealed that dew helped the pitch to get much easier for batting in the second innings.  

"Ishan and Shreyas batted so well, that partnership was so nice to watch. It was coming on nicely, but it stayed low. Plan was to take on the bowlers in the first 10 overs as we knew it could get difficult in the middle overs. When the dew came, you could see that it got easier," Dhawan added.