New Chandigarh, Dec 11 (IANS) Riding on Quinton de Kock’s blazing 90 and Ottniel Baartman’s figures of 4-24, South Africa levelled the five-game series with a resounding 51‑run win over India in the second T20I at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in New Chandigarh on Thursday.

De Kock set the tone for South Africa, posting 213 with clean hitting at the top, as his 46-ball 90 was laced with five fours and seven sixes. In reply, India’s chase faltered early and never recovered from the blows of losing Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, and skipper Suryakumar Yadav.

With Axar Patel’s puzzling promotion to No.3 failing to pay off, Tilak Varma was the only Indian batter to find rhythm and show some enterprise by scoring 62 off 34 balls. But he lacked support from the other end as wickets tumbled around him, and Varma was the last man to fall as India were bowled out for 162 in 19.1 overs.

South Africa’s bowlers maintained pressure throughout and conceded only five extras, including three wides, in tough bowling conditions, where India conceded a whopping 15 extras. Apart from Baartman, Marco Jansen, Lungi Ngidi, and Lutho Sipamla took two wickets each.

India’s chase began in disarray as Gill was undone by a terrific delivery from Ngidi that straightened off a good length, squaring him up and finding the edge to slip, as he fell for a golden duck. Abhishek, who had already cleared the boundary ropes twice, was completely squared up as Jansen got one to straighten over the middle stump to draw an outside edge to the keeper and dismiss him for 17.

Axar walked in at number three, but soon saw Suryakumar depart as he went after a back-of-a-length ball from Jansen and edged behind to Quinton de Kock. Varma offered some resistance by hitting three boundaries, with a whipped six off Sipamla being the standout. But South Africa continued to chip away as Axar’s attempt to break free ended in chipping a drive to give cover a low catch off Baartman.

Varma brought out the pull and switch hit to collect sixes, before bringing up his fifth T20I fifty in 27 balls by slog-sweeping Ngidi for another maximum. But South Africa continued to chip away as a struggling Hardik Pandya holed out to deep mid-wicket off Sipamla, just a ball after being dropped by long-on.

Despite more lofty hits coming from the willows of Varma and Jitesh Sharma, who smashed 27 off 17 balls, the result was a foregone conclusion in South Africa’s favour as the visitors secured a superb series-levelling win.

Brief scores:

South Africa 213/4 in 20 overs (Quinton de Kock 90, Donovan Ferreira 30 not out; Varun Chakaravarthy 2-29, Axar Patel 1-27) beat India 162 all out in 19.1 overs (Tilak Varma 62, Jitesh Sharma 27; Ottniel Baartman 4-24, Marco Jansen 2-25) by 51 runs

–IANS

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