In the second T20I between India and South Africa played at Gqeberha, South Africa came hard and won the match by three wickets. In this low-scoring thriller, African batters kept their nerves calm and managed to pull of a victory when they were struggling on 86 runs at the loss of seven wickets.
However, for India, the mystery spinner Varun Chakravarty joined an elite list with his five-wicket haul. Defending a low total of just 124 runs, Varun worked his magic during the middle overs of the second innings. Even though the conditions favored fast bowlers, Varun bowled with perfect line and length, managing to deceive players like Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller.
After taking the wickets of Aiden Markram and Reeza Hendricks in the first half of South Africa’s innings, Varun put South Africa in trouble. The KKR spinner then sent down the top batters, Klaasen and Miller.
Now, Varun has become the fifth Indian bowler to grab a five-wicket haul in the T20I.
List of Indian bowlers to take five-wicket haul in T20I
1) Kuldeep Yadav- 5/17
2)Bhuvneshwar Kumar – 5/4
3)Yuzvendra Chahal – 6/25
4) Deepak Chahar – 6/7
5) Varun Chakravarthy – 5/17
Talking about the match, South African captain Aiden Markram won the toss and elected to bowl first. Team India did not have a great start and they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Hardik Pandya turned out to be the highest scorer for the team who scored 39 runs. Axar Patel got 27 runs while the left-handed batter Tilak Varma managed to get 20 runs.
South Africa kept their hopes alive in the four-match T20I series by winning the second game by three wickets. India played very well in the first match at Kingsmead in Durban and tried hard again on Sunday, but South Africa came out on top. If India had won, they would have taken a strong 2-0 lead.
