SA draw first blood

Gqeberha, Dec 12: South Africa beat India by 5 wickets in the second of the three-match series at the St George’s Park in Gqeberha to go 1-0 up in the series. While rain had made no play possible in the series opener, the downpour did impact the second match of the series but not enough to wash out the game, much to the delight of fans. South Africa won the toss and elected to bowl first in overcast conditions.
The Proteas then even reduced India to 6/2 after 2 overs, removing both the Indian openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill for ducks. However, India still managed to revive and post a competitive 180/7 in 19.3 overs before rain came in. Suryakumar Yadav (56 off 36) and Rinku Singh (68* off 39), were the stars with the bat for India. The Proteas were then given a target of 152 to win in 15 overs which they managed to achieve with 7 balls to spare.
Reeza Hendricks top-scored with 49 off 27 while captain Aiden Markram scored 30 off 17. Matthew Breetzke was also looking good and made 16 off 7 before a massive confusion in the middle led to his run out. India had a glimmer of hope when they got rid of Aiden Markram, Reeza Hendricks and Heinrich Klaasen in quick succession but by that time, the required run rate had already come down so much that the Proteas did not need to anything extraordinary to get over the line.
In the end, it was Tristan Stubbs and Andile Phehlukwayo who remained unbeaten and got the job done for South Africa. Phehlukwayo scored a whopping six on the leg side to finish things off for the hosts who now go 1-0 up in the thre-match series.
India captain for the South Africa T20I series, Suryakumar Yadav, on Monday accomplished the milestone of crossing 2000 T20I runs, making him the joint-fastest Indian player to reach this landmark.
He achieved this feat during the match against South Africa at St George’s Park in Gqeberha on Monday. The right-handed batter is level with Virat Kohli for the fastest India player to 2000 T20I runs in 56 innings, while former Pakistan captain Babar Azam and his counterpart Mohammad Rizwan hold the first position on the list with 52 innings.Suryakumar, who also captains the Indian team, reached 2000 runs in his 56th inning, the same as Kohli, with a six-over midwicket against South African pacer Lizaad Williams. (Agencies)