GQEBERHA, NOVEMBER 11
Tristan Stubbs scored a patient 47 not out off 41 balls as South Africa beat India by three wickets in the second Twenty20 on Sunday to level the four-match series 1-1.
Stubbs was helped by Gerald Coetzee, who scored 19 not out off nine balls, as their unbeaten 42-run, 20-ball partnership for the eighth wicket took the Proteas home.
Varun Chakravarthy picked up a stellar five wickets for 17 runs in four overs, but his spell went in vain as South Africa finished with 128-7 in 19 overs.
This was after South Africa had won the toss for a second time and opted to field first. India was restricted to 124-6 in 20 overs after recovering from 15-3 in four overs. Hardik Pandya scored 39 not out off 45 balls.
India won the first T20 in Durban by 61 runs. The third game will be played in Centurion on Wednesday.
Sanju Samson, who scored successive hundreds in his last two T20 innings, was out for a three-ball duck off Marco Jansen.
India was quickly down to 5-2 in 11 balls as Coetzee sent back Abhishek Sharma for four.
Andile Simelane then took his maiden T20 wicket, trapping India skipper Suryakumar Yadav lbw for four.
Tilak Varma scored 20 to stem the collapse, but he was out caught thanks to a stunning one-handed catch by David Miller.
India was in big trouble at 45-4 in eight overs, thanks to some restrictive bowling by the Proteas.
Pandya and Axar Patel then put on 30 runs to avoid embarrassment, but wickets continued to fall regularly.
Patel was run out for 27 off 21 balls – an unlucky dismissal – just when India seemed to be turning the tide. Rinku Singh was caught for nine runs and the scoreboard read 87-6 in 15.2 overs.
Pandya farmed the strike for the rest of the innings – he and Arshdeep Singh (7 not out) faced 28 balls together, but the latter only faced six deliveries.
The all-rounder struck four fours and a six, as he looked for hitting opportunities and somehow pushed India to a defendable target.
In reply, South Africa's top order did a decent job – Ryan Rickelton scored 13 before he was caught at square leg. His co-opener Reeza Hendricks, who was brought into the side Sunday, scored 24 off 21 with three fours and a six before spin came on.
Mystery spinner Chakravarthy ran through the middle order as South African batters were unable to cope - particularly against his googly.
First he bowled skipper Aiden Markram for three in the sixth over, and then bowled Hendricks in the eighth.
Jansen suffered the same fate in the 11th over, out bowled for seven, and the score read 64-4.
Chakravarthy dealt a major double blow in the 13th over. Heinrich Klaasen was caught for two runs, and then Miller was out for a golden duck.
Although he missed the hat trick, Chakravarthy got his maiden five-wicket haul. It was also the joint second-best bowling figures against South Africa in T20s, after Pakistan's Umar Gul's five wickets for six runs in 2013.
South Africa needed 50 off 36 balls and Ravi Bishnoi joined the party as he bowled Simelane (7) in the 16th over.
South Africa had lost six wickets for 53 runs in 62 deliveries – all wickets falling to spin.
With 25 needed off the last 18 balls, Coetzee hit three boundaries to tilt it in South Africa's favor.
Stubbs, who watched the collapse from the other end, scored seven fours in all and guided his team home in the end with six balls to spare.
