Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 72-run captaincy innings helped India defeated South Africa by seven wickets in the second Twenty20 match to take a lead by 1-0 in the three-match series. The first match of the series was washed away due to rain in Dharamsala. Virat won the toss in the second match and decided to field first. The Indian bowlers performed accurately, stopping South Africa for 149 for 5 wickets in 20 overs. India scored 151 for 3 wickets in 19 overs thanks to their skipper Virat’s brilliant half-century innings, giving Indian fans a chance to celebrate. Virat played an unbeaten 72-run match-winning innings with the help of 4 fours and 3 sixes in 52 balls. Virat received the man of the match award for this innings. Virat and Shikhar Dhawan shared a 61-run partnership for the second wicket after Rohit Sharma (12) fell quickly. Rohit hit 2 sixes in 12 runs off 12 balls.
India’s first wicket fall at 31 and the second wicket fall at 94. Young wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant missed another opportunity and was dismissed for 4 runs off 5 balls. India’s third wicket fall at a score of 104. Virat then led India to the victory floor with Shreyas Iyer remaining 1 over. Virat scored an unbeaten 72 and Iyer scored 16 not out. For South Africa, Phehlukwayo, Tabraiz Shamsi and Bjorn Fortuin took 1 wicket each. With this innings, Virat has overtaken Rohit to become the highest run-scorer in T20. Virat has scored 2440 runs while Rohit has 2434 runs. Earlier, India stopped South Africa for 149 runs. South Africa had a good start but the Indian bowlers made a great comeback and curbed the batsmen of the visiting team.
South African captain Quinton de Kock scored the highest 52 runs with the help of 8 fours off 37 balls. Temba Bavuma missed out on his debut Twenty20 match by scoring a half-century. Bavuma hit 3 fours and 1 six in 49 off 43 balls. de Kock and Bavuma shared a 57-run partnership for the second wicket. De Kock had earlier shared a 31-run partnership for the first wicket with Reeza Hendricks, with Hendrix contributing just 6 runs. Hendricks and Bavuma were dismissed by Deepak Chahar. de Kock took the wicket of Navdeep Saini while Ravindra Jadeja was caught by Rassie van der Dussen on his own ball. Dussen could only score 1 run. David Miller scored 18 off 15 balls. Miller was bowled by Hardik Pandya. Dwaine Pretorius scored 10 not out and Andile Phehlukwayo scored 8 not out. For India, Chahar took two wickets for 22 runs while Saini, Jadeja and Pandya took one wicket each.
India defeated South Africa by 7 wickets
