South Africa pegged one back in the second T20I, after a slew of rather meek surrenders, to beat the visitors by six wickets, courtesy a well-rounded performance by the team. Now that India's five-match unbeaten streak in T20Is has culminated, the series is well poised for an exciting finish. The hosts remained in control of the game throughout, barring the late assault in the Indian innings. Here are the match ratings for the players on both sides.
India:
Shikhar Dhawan: 6.5/10
Dhawan started with a bang but did not last long, much like Rohit in the previous game. He struck three fours and two sixes in his brief stay and was looking to go big yet again when he holed out to Farhaan Behardien off JP Duminy's innocuous off-spin.
Rohit Sharma: 0/10
Rohit tried to capitalize on the pace of Dala from ball one but was comprehensively trapped in front. In the field too, he could not impress and he ends up with a duck for his ratings as well.
Suresh Raina: 7/10:
Raina started with a gingerly edge but soon found his touch. He was content in playing the second fiddle when Dhawan was launching the assault, but the fall of two quick wickets disturbed his momentum. He was also a live wire in the field, as he has always been.
Virat Kohli: 2/10
Captain Kohli had a rare failure with the bat, scoring only a run off five deliveries. From the captaincy point too, he missed a trick by going in with four bowlers and Pandya as he had no backup in case of a possible failure. Unlike his counterpart, he also refrained from giving his part-timers a chance to derail the South African momentum.
Manish Pandey: 9/10
Pandey played the best innings of his career after India was in a spot of bother at 90-4. He paced the innings perfectly to avoid another collapse and accelerated towards the end with aplomb. He would be gutted that this gem of an innings did not lead to his side's win.
MS Dhoni: 8.5/10
Dhoni was calm as always in the crease, gauging the nature of the pitch and rotating the strike till he launched into the hulk mode in the last ten balls. He plundered runs with sheer brute force and put the South Africans in the back foot at the halfway stage.
Hardik Pandya: 6/10
Pandya did a tidy job as the fifth bowler as he gave away just 31 runs and got rid of the dangerous David Miller even before he could settle down.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar: 6.5/10
Bhuvneshwar was tight as always in his opening spell but the South African batsmen, having fresh memories of his fifer in the last match, played him out warily. As a result, he could not find the breakthrough that his captain so desperately wanted.
Jaydev Unadkat: 6.5/10
Unadkat's tendency to bowl short may have fetched him wickets, but he also leaked away runs in plenty in the process. He can't be rated down though because the onus was on him to fetch the breakthroughs.
Shardul Thakur: 6/10
Shardul had figures identical to that of Pandya, so he gets identical ratings as well.
Yuzvendra Chahal: 1/10
Chahal had an off day, by all standards of the game. He was not able to put a foot right in the entire match as he struggled to grip the ball well in the wet outfield. Flight, his primary weapon, was well neutralized as the South Africans motored on to a comprehensive win.
South Africa:
Reeza Henricks: 6.5/10
Henricks did for South Africa what Dhawan had done to India - provide a brisk start with a flurry of boundaries and make an unceremonious exit. But his innings set the tone for the South African chase.
JJ Smuts: 3/10
Smuts was clueless during his stay at the crease even when his partner was making merry. His painful stay was finally cut short with a short one from Unadkat. With the ball though, he was tidy as he finished his quota of two overs without a fuss.
JP Duminy: 10/10
Duminy got everything right in this game- a cameo role with the ball to remove a rampaging Dhawan, an anchor role with a strike rate of 160, and some masterful strokes as a captain.
Heinrich Klaasen: 9.5/10
Klaasen was in an absolute beast mode as he thrashed around everything that was tossed or hurled at him. He struck seven humongous sixes, which would have killed the morale of any bowling team. By the time he was accounted for, the match was already in the Proteas' kitty.
David Miller: 2/10
Dismissal at a stage where even sensible singles would have helped the cause will do no good to Miller's reputation. He was startled by a short ball from Pandya and offered a simple catch to Thakur.
Farhan Behardien: 6/10
Behardien did what was required of him - stay till the end and finish things off. He did not make the mistake that Miller committed and chose to run hard between the wickets instead of going for the needless glory shots.
Andile Phelukwayo: 5/10
His two overs were safe and he also accounted for a well-set Raina, but Andile Phelukwayo needs to do more than that if he wants to cement a position in this lineup.
Chris Morris: 3/10
Chris Morris started like a dream - bowling a maiden over to Dhawan. But from his second over, things took an ugly turn as he got hammered for 42 in his next three overs. Though his captain had full faith in him, Morris could not repay it back, going wicketless in the outing.
Dane Paterson: 2/10
Dane Paterson tried to hit a wet deck hard to extract bounce but given the slow nature of the wicket, Pandey and Dhoni made full use of that, as he got clobbered around the park during the death overs.
Junior Dala: 8/10
Junior Dala was the best bowler this evening by a great margin. The ball that swung in to trap Rohit was a peach of a delivery. Later in the game, his awkward bounce also prised out the Indian captain.
Tabraiz Shamsi: 2/10
Shamsi was not very much in the thick of things as he got to bowl just two overs getting hammered for 23, forcing his captain to look for other options, including himself.
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