NEW DELHI: India captain Suryakumar Yadav on Sunday praised spinner Varun Chakravarthy‘s magical performance in the second T20I against South Africa.
Chakravarthy took five wickets for 17 runs but it was not enough as India lost a low-scoring thriller by three wickets.
Chakravarthy’s impressive bowling limited South Africa to 66 runs for six wickets while chasing a target of 125.
However, Tristan Stubbs (47) and Gerald Coetzee (19) formed a partnership to guide South Africa to victory in 19 overs, ending India’s winning streak of 11 matches.
“In a T20, someone getting a five-for while defending 125 is incredible. Varun has been waiting for this for a long time, working hard on his bowling, and everyone enjoyed it,” Suryakumar said during the post-match presentation.
India struggled to score runs, finishing their innings at 124 for six.
“You always have to back whatever total you get. Of course, in a T20 game you don’t wanna get 120, but proud of the way we bowled,” Suryakumar said.
“Two games to go, lot of entertainment left. 1-1 going into Jo’burg gonna be a lot of fun.”
South Africa’s captain, Aiden Markram, commended his bowlers for their effective execution of plans.
“I thought we bowled really well, some really good plans and our bowlers executed really well,” he said.
“From the batting point of view, you want to break it at the mid-way stage but it didn’t work out. Sometimes when you lose wickets in a cluster it doesn’t look pretty. We need to take it on the chin, we are definitely going to keep our brand of cricket going.”
Despite being 86 for seven, Stubbs and Coetzee’s eighth-wicket partnership of 42 runs secured the win for the Proteas.
“Fortunately the run rate never got away from us. I had 30 (runs) in mind to get off the last three, and the dew came in to help us also,” said Stubbs, who was adjudged the Player of the Match.
“Coetzee came in and played that innings in the end and we got over the line. He (Coetzee) walked in and said we can win this. It was always two hits away being back to run-a-ball.
“I just tried to breathe. It’s my mom’s birthday so there were 20-30 people who came to watch the game. This is my favourite place to play cricket. I was nervous, so I was trying to control by breathing.”