It’s a delight to watch Quinton de Kock bat. The stylish opener unfurled plenty of his signature shots at the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium on Thursday to score an invaluable 46-ball 90 (5×4, 7×6) as South Africa beat India by 51 runs in the second T20I.
Asked to bat first, the Proteas took full toll of a mediocre bowling show from India to amass 213 for four in 20 overs.
De Kock contributed the lion’s share of the runs, once again showing why he is one of the most feared openers in white-ball cricket.
While Reeza Hendricks (8, 10b) and Aiden Markram (29, 26b, 1×4, 2×6) found it difficult to get going early, de Kock had no such issues, peppering the deep square-leg boundary with ease and panache.
Yuvraj Singh, whose stand was unveiled along with Harmanpreet Kaur here, would have been taken down the memory lane watching some of the stylish leg-side sixes de Kock unleashed.
Things looked ominous for India as South Africa reached the halfway stage of the innings at 90 for one.
The opener’s most authoritative stroke of the evening, a six over Arshdeep Singh’s head seemed to rattle the left-arm pacer. Arshdeep (none for 54) lost his bearings and bowled seven wides in a 13-ball 11th over which went for 18 runs. The live telecast also showed India head coach Gautam Gambhir losing his cool over Arshdeep’s continued lack of control.
Markram got into the act soon, hitting back-to-back sixes off Varun Chakaravarthy (two for 29) down the ground. His third attempt, off the last ball of the over, wasn’t successful as Varun had the Proteas skipper mishit one straight to deep midwicket.
De Kock’s blitzkrieg finally came to an end when he ran himself out after edging the ball to wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma, who quickly dislodged the bails once his opposite number took a couple of steps, not knowing where the ball had gone.
After a couple of quiet overs, Donovan Ferreira (30 n.o., 16b, 1×4, 3×6) and David Miller (20 n.o., 12b, 2×4, 1×6) went after Jasprit Bumrah (none for 45) and Arshdeep as the visitors slammed 49 runs off the last three overs, essentially batting India out of the match.
India conceded as many as 22 extras, including 16 wides, which added to South Africa’s momentum.
The result was a foregone conclusion once the host lost Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav within four overs.
India may be getting concerned with the batting form of its skipper and his deputy ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Axar Patel’s promotion to No. 3 did not bear fruit as the Indian chase went nowhere. With 133 needed off the last 10 overs (six wickets in hand), India’s hopes of victory were all but over.
Only Tilak Varma (62, 34b, 2×4, 5×6) gave a fight as India was bowled out for 162 in 19.1 overs. The think-tank will have a lot to ponder over as the bandwagon heads further north to Dharamshala.
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