Twitter Reactions: Lungi Ngidi, David Miller put brakes on India's juggernaut to help South Africa climb top of table

After the India-Pakistan contest, the Indian fans had been waiting for the India-South Africa game, as the two teams met at the Perth Stadium for their T20 World Cup 2022 fixture. The two teams had met recently for a T20I series that India won, and this contest turned out to be very intriguing. It was a low-scoring thriller, and South Africa bagged their second win of the tournament and defeated India by five wickets to go on the top of the points table.

The game started with India winning the toss. Rohit Sharma’s decision to bat first did not quite work in India’s favor as the openers failed to fire, again. Sharma was the first one to walk back to the pavilion after scoring 15(14), and KL Rahul followed him next after playing a 14-ball 9-run knock. India’s start was sluggish and all the focus then shifted to the in-form batters, Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav.

India suffered a major blow when Kohli was dismissed early, but Yadav carried all the pressure on his shoulder and acted as the lone warrior. He scored a major chunk of India’s total runs, but could not find the right partner to build a partnership with. Deepak Hooda, Hardik Pandya, and Dinesh Karthik failed to score runs and were dismissed cheaply.

As a result, India managed to score only 133 runs in their allotted 20-over quota, with Yadav finishing as the top run-scorer. Lungi Ngidi was the pick of the bowlers as he finished with four wickets under his belt.

South Africa struggle, but cruise past India

South Africa’s start to the chase was awful, to say the least, as opener Quinton de Kock, and the in-form Rilee Rossouw, who had notched up a century in his previous game, were dismissed in just the second over of play, courtesy of Arshdeep Singh. The young pacer managed to give India an early breakthrough by picking up two crucial wickets within three deliveries, but things fell out of place for India thereon.

South Africa lost the third wicket inside the powerplay as Temba Bavuma, the Proteas skipper, found his way back to the pavilion courtesy of Mohammed Shami. But after the powerplay, the Indian bowlers struggled, and South Africa’s middle-order batters enjoyed their time on the field. India’s fielding saw a downfall as the Men in Blue missed out on multiple dismissal opportunities, and the Proteas batters capitalized on the chances.

Aiden Markram and David Miller shared a composed 76-run stand and kept South Africa’s game going. Markram fell prey to Hardik Pandya’s pace after completing a fine half-century, but that did not affect the Proteas much as Miller continued the power-hitting. Indian bowlers took the game deep and kept the opposition batters on the edge till the final over, but South Africa managed to sail past the Men in Blue to hand them their first defeat of the tournament.