On a pitch which was nearly tailor-made for the fast bowlers, South Africa got the better of team India by 5 wickets during the ‘Super 12 Group 2’ encounter of the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022, at the Perth Stadium.
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With India having to defend their lowest total in a T20I match and skipper Rohit Sharma deciding to use only five bowlers during the innings, all it required for South Africa were a couple of double-digit Overs while making sure they had the wickets in hand, despite struggling at the 10-Over mark of the chase.
With the scorecard reading 40/3 after 10 Overs, the experienced middle-order batters in Aiden Markram (52 off 41) and David Miller (59* off 46) took centre stage, to nearly nail the challenging run-chase with their fourth wicket partnership of 76 runs off 60 deliveries.
A couple of poor fielding efforts from the two most experienced players in Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli proved to be costly as well, after which Miller’s back-to-back boundaries off Bhuvneshwar Kumar saw his team through with two deliveries to spare.
Albie Morkel predicts maiden World Cup victory for South Africa
Elated by tonight’s victory, former South African allrounder Albie Morkel took to his social media handle, to term it a ‘Cracker of a game’ between the two stronger sides in the group.
An ever-confident Morkel then went on to state that he would reiterate his earlier statement predicting South Africa to lift the T20 World Cup.
Cracker of a game! I said it before the WC, and still believe SA will bring the trophy home 👍🏻
— Albie Morkel (@albiemorkel) October 30, 2022
Earlier, the back of scintillating spells of fast bowling particularly from the ‘Player of the match’ Lungi Ngidi (4-0-29-4), and Wayne Parnell (4-1-15-3) made sure India never even looked like even threatening to post a humongous total on the board.
It was only on the back of Suryakumar Yadav’s spectacular innings – 68 (40) under pressure that India managed to huff-and-puff to the total of 133/9 in their 20 Overs.