SA crush India

India's Rohit Sharma loses grip of his bat while trying to play a shot during the second Twenty20 cricket match against South Africa in Cuttack, India. Picture: Danish Siddiqui

India's Rohit Sharma loses grip of his bat while trying to play a shot during the second Twenty20 cricket match against South Africa in Cuttack, India. Picture: Danish Siddiqui

Published Oct 5, 2015

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Cuttack, India – South Africa signalled their re-emergence as a force in the shortest format of the game with a commanding six wicket win over India to win both the second T20 match and the three match series in Cuttack on Monday.

The Proteas chased down the 93 required for victory in 17.1 overs without much trouble to begin their lengthy tour of India in fine fashion.

The win meant South Africa take an unassailable 2-0 lead into the final T20 scheduled for Eden Gardens, in Kolkata, on Thursday.

It was a timely series win for South Africa with the T20 World Cup scheduled to take place in India in March and April next year.

With the hosts bundled out for 92 by the Proteas with the ball, Ravi Ashwin picked up three wickets but JP Duminy (30 runs from 3 balls) once again steered South Africa to victory with the willow.

The match was not without incident though, as play was delayed when the crowd began throwing objects onto the field with South Africa needing just 30 more runs to win. Eventually, officials were able to calm the frustrated home crowd and the visitors were able to continue their steady march to victory. But after South Africa knocked off another seven runs to bring their score to 70, the crowd interrupted play again by hurling objects onto the field. After the second delay, the teams were able to resume on and concluded proceedings.

The victory, however, was setup by a rampaging performance in the field from the South Africans.

The Indian innings did begin brightly with 28 for the first wicket, before Chris Morris trapped opener Shikhar Dhawan lbw for 11 with four overs gone.

From that point it was a steady procession of wickets with Virat Kohli the next to fall run out for a single. Another run out followed just as India were attempting a recovery with Rohit Sharma (22) also caught short of his ground to leave the hosts 43 for 3 with 7.5 overs gone.

In conjunction with their solid performance in the field, the bowlers kept India on the backfoot led by the recalled Albie Morkel. The veteran allrounder returned quite remarkable figures of 3/12 in his four over stint including the key scalp of MS Dhoni for 5. With his fine performance, Morkel, aged 34, may just have put his name back in the conversation for the T20 World Cup.

Imran Tahir was also impressive with 2/24, and Morris ended with 2/16 from 2.2 overs.

ANA

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