India vs South Africa: Virat Kohli collides with Beuran Hendricks for coming on his way

Whether his team wins or loses, India captain Virat Kohli is never short of his aggressive best. The ace batsman had a moment of ‘clash’ with South Africa bowler Beuran Hendricks during the third T20I in Bengaluru on Sunday. Kohli though failed with the bat in this match after winning the toss and electing to bat. India had an ordinary batting performance that saw the Proteas winning by 9 wickets to level the three-match series 1-1. India won the second game in Mohali by seven wickets while the first match in Dharamsala was abandoned because of rain.

It all happened when Kohli was batting and Hendricks was the bowler. The South African did not move from the batsman’s running corridor and that saw the Indian captain, who was taking a run, nudge the bowler with his elbow, leaving him stunned.

Hendricks’ 2/14 hurts India’s batting

Hendricks, however, had a field day with two vital wickets – Rohit Sharma (9) and Krunal Pandya (4) that reduced the hosts into a troubled lot. The left-arm pacer, who was playing in just his 11th T20I, ended up with 2/14 in four overs which was SA’s best bowling performance and was picked as the man of the match. The visitors restricted the powerful Indian batting line-up to 134 for 9 and then won the game with nine wickets and 19 balls to spare.

For India, Shikhar Dhawan was the highest scorer with 36 from 25 balls. For the South Africans, captain Quinton de Kock slammed an unbeaten 79 and opener Reeza Hendricks made 28. The two added 76 runs for the first wicket to take the match out of India’s reach. De Kock and Temba Bavuma added 64 runs for the second wicket to seal the game.

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Rishabh Pant came out at No.4 in this match but could score only 19. Shreyas Iyer, another talented youngster, fell for only five to leave India’s middle order exposed. “Look, we will have to take risks. Even when you want to win a game of cricket you have to take risks, so nothing is a given, nothing is a guaranteed before you start playing,” Kohli said at the post-match press conference on Sunday when asked about his decision to bat first.

“I think as a team if we are willing to get out of our comfort zone a lot more, then we will be unfazed with what happens at the toss. That’s our basis idea: trying to take the toss out of the equation as a side.”