JP Duminy delighted with match-winning knock; MS Dhoni critical of umpire's call

MS Dhoni feels India were unfortunate not to dismiss JP Duminy

Indian skipper MS Dhoni expressed his disappointment at the umpire’s wrongful decision to not give Duminy out, when he was caught plumb in front of the wickets, ESPNCricinfo reports. Duminy went on to register a match-winning knock for the visitors and the South African described his delight at having played a part in the team’ s victory.

JP Duminy proved why he is considered one of the most dangerous T20 batsmen in the world as he guided South Africa to victory in the first T20I at Dharamsala. The visitors overcame India’s score of 199 with two balls to spare and seven wickets in hand as Rohit Sharma's splendid century earlier in the day ended up in a losing cause.

Rohit himself got away when he was yet to open his account as he survived a close shout for leg before wicket, but the incident Dhoni was referring to occurred in the 17^th over of the South African innings when Duminy got a reprieve when he was trapped right in front of the wickets off the bowling of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. At that stage, the visitors still needed 43 off 23 balls and Dhoni feels the umpire’s call had a huge bearing on the outcome of the match.

"If decisions don't go in your favour, that also puts pressure and I thought we were unfortunate not to get Duminy," Dhoni said. "The game was evenly poised, but that's how cricket is, you don't get everything in your favour. But I felt they also batted well, kept the momentum going which is important when you're chasing 200 runs."

Duminy went on to score the winning runs in the contest but credited the opening duo of Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers for getting the team off to a flying start.

"I thought the way we started the innings, it was probably what we wanted chasing 200. We knew it was going to be a tough total to chase, probably just above par, but we were happy with that start," Duminy said.

The visitors lost the pair followed by the dismissal of skipper Faf du Plessis in quick succession to leave them in a spot of bother after a brisk start. Duminy started off cautiously before tearing into left-armer Axar Patel, notching up 22 runs of the 16^th over that pretty much sealed the match in favour of South Africa.

Revealing his thoughts ahead of that over, Duminy said: “The situation of the game called for me to just go hammer and tongs. Myself and Behardien both said we need to take it on now and we don't want to die wondering at the end of the 20 overs. I was fortunate that a few were in my arc and cleared the boundary with a few, I was pretty happy with that over."

South Africa chased down the target of 200 with two balls to spare with Duminy, fittingly scoring the winning runs. The 31-year-old said that he was confident they could achieve the target in spite of the game heading into the final over.

"We knew if we get it down to 10-11 runs in the last over, we stood a chance. With this ground being a little bit small, and the altitude, so the ball travels a bit, so we knew we were in the game. Fortunately enough the left-armer missed his length a little bit, so gave me the opportunity to clear the boundary one more time," Duminy said.