De Kock 90 leads SA to 213-4 v India

Quinton de Kock blazed a stunning 90 from just 46 balls to lead South Africa to an impressive total of 213-4 on a perfect batting pitch after being asked to bat first in the second of five T20 Internationals against India at the Yadavindra Singh Cricket Stadium in Chandigarh on Thursday.

De Kock made a flying start with a pair of early, legside sixes against Arshdeep Singh and even included a slog-swept maximum against fellow new ball bowler, the great Jasprit Bumrah.

De Kock reached 50 from a mere 26 balls with four sixes and fours applying unrelenting pressure on all of the bowlers who had no answer to his array of shots on both sides of the wicket.

Left armer Arshdeep suffered a cruel meltdown in his third over, the 11th of the innings, when the de Kock assault caused him to bowl an astonishing seven wides in a 13-ball over which cost 18 runs and proved that even the best, most experienced bowlers can wilt under pressure.

Captain Aiden Markram was a largely inactive spectator at the non-striker’s end reaching a pedestrian 17 from 21 balls before bursting into life with two straight sixes against legspinner Varun Chakravarthy in the 12th over before slogging him to deep midwicket to depart for 29 from 26 balls.

Dewald Brevis, too, struggled to get going with eight from seven balls until he hoisted medium pacer Shivam Dube for six over long on but there was no stopping de Kock who took 17 from Hardik Pandya’s third over to keep the scoreboard rattling along at over 10 runs per over.

De Kock seemed certain to post his second century in the format until a freak dismissal saw him run out by ‘keeper Jitesh Sharma when he pushed the ball into the offside seeking a single only to see it spin back towards the gloveman who gathered it brilliantly to remove the bails with the batsman centimetres short of his crease. His 90 included five fours and seven sixes.

Brevis (14) was well caught at deep midwicket off left arm spinner Axar Patel and Chakravarthy (4-0-29-2) brought the momentum to a shuddering halt with just four runs coming from the 16th over as Donovan Ferreira became the fourth player in the top six to struggle for timing – initially.

But veteran David Miller crunched a couple of early fours and flicked a low full toss from Arshdeep for six in the penultimate over to complete the bower’s horror show. There have been many more expensive analyses than Arshdeep’s 4-0-54-0, including nine wides, but few have seen the leader of an attack collapse quite so dramatically.

Miller finished unbeaten on 20 from 12 balls while Ferreira located the middle of his bat just in time to smite three sixes and a four in a whirlwind 30* from 16 deliveries.

Recalled veteran Reeza Hendricks pulled Bumrah for six but required 10 balls for his eight runs while de Kock appeared to be batting on a different surface and facing different bowlers to his teammates.

South Africa made three changes to the starting XI which suffered a humiliating 101-run loss in the opening game in Cuttack on Tuesday in which the Proteas were dismissed for just 74, their lowest total in the format.

Tristan Stubbs was replaced by Hendricks, Keshav Maharaj made way for George Linde and Ottneil Baartman was brought in for Anrich Nortje.

India, unsurprisingly, retained the same starting XI.

INDIA: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (wkt), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh

SOUTH AFRICA: Reeza Hendricks, Quinton de Kock (wkt), Aiden Markram (captain), Dewald Brevis, David Miller, Donovan Ferreira, George Linde, Marco Jansen, Lutho Sipamla, Lungi Ngidi, Ottneil Baartman