India won the second T20 match against South Africa in Guwahati on Sunday to gain an unassailable lead in the three match series.
An enthralling encounter was played out at the Barsapara cricket stadium in Guwahati with both teams showcasing some fine batting performances. However, the men in blue came up trumps in the end in a high-scoring fixture.
South Africa skipper Temba Bavuma won the toss and elected to bowl first. Coming in to bat, India were off to great start with both openers putting up 96 runs on the board for the first wicket.
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma was then caught off the bowling of Keshav Maharaj at 48, just shy of his half-century.
Following a strong start, entered former captain Virat Kohli, who had the perfect opportunity to show his array of shots. But at the other end, India quickly lost the other opener K L Rahul, who went after a good innings of 57 runs off 28 balls.
With this, Surya Kumar Yadav entered the play and played a blistering innings of 61 runs of 22 deliveries. His innings included shots all around the park with five sixes and five boundaries.
He was then dismissed by the opposition skipper Bavuma who got him run out. Towards the end of the innings, specialist finisher Dinesh Karthik got the free hand from Kohli to go after the last over. With Kohli left stranded on 49 and unable to get his 50, Karthik ended with a quick-fire 17 off 7 balls including two sixes to hand the Proteas 238 runs to chase.
In the second innings, South Africa once again got off to a shaky start, losing opener and captain Bavuma went for naught after Deepak Chahar bowled a maiden in the first over.
Bavuma was caught off Harshdeep's bowling who also got his succussor on the pitch, Rilee Rossouw in the same over.
Then it was Axar Patel's turn to drive the nails deeper in the Proteas' coffin, with Aiden Markram sent home after scoring 33 runs off 19 balls.
That led to David Miller getting on the pitch and no one expected what could follow. What was being thought of as another drubbing, soon turned completely upside down with Miller, aided by Quinton de Kock steered the South African innings to all but a win.
Miller smashed the ball out of the park seven times in an innings that also included eight fours which took him to 106 off 47 deliveries. de Kock scored 69 off 48 with South Africa looking dangerously close to winning.
In the end India just about managed to win the high-scoring match, defeating South Africa by 15 runs.
After facing much criticism, the ground staff gave a good batting surface which made for an interesting match. However, the Assam Cricket Association will receive flak with the game being interrupted twice, once after a snake entered the field and again due to an electrical malfunction.
