IND vs SA

11:12 PM local time and IST: This stadium in New Chandigarh isn't the best for home teams and the IPL should tell you all about it! India too have lost their first T20 match here. South Africa can be proud of this near-perfect performance, after a bad loss a couple of nights back. However, the hosts were below-par today, especially with the bat. They need to get their acts together for the third game on Sunday, up in Dharamsala. The first ball gets bowled there at 7:00 PM IST. Do join us for that one to follow who takes the lead again in the 5-match series. This is the pair of Sourabh and Bidipto taking your leave. Keep following Sportskeeda! 

Quinton de Kock (Player of the Match, 90 runs off 46 balls and 2 catches): "Things are just happening! I like to keep it going the way it comes.....I think because we play India so much that I get the opportunity to score against them as well, the wickets are pretty good too. Arshdeep Singh has got be out many times, but today, I got the tactics right against him and it paid off. I didn't think that the ball was playing all that wet, it felt pretty dry. I also did think that it wasn't easy for the new batter to come in and get going. But when India batted, the pitch quickened up and made batting tougher." 

Aiden Markram (South Africa captain): "Much better tonight. Started off with the bat with a special knock from Quinny (de Kock). Good contributions in the end to get us to a good score. The bowlers were good in the last game but even better today, trending in the right direction. Fielding has been good in both the games. Was good (the conditions). Something for the bowlers if they put it in the right areas. The batters could put the bowlers under pressure if they got in. Great support for India, good game to be a part of. It is never easy (on droppping players). You as a player want to get 3-4 games on the run but building up to the World Cup with the SA20 coming up, the priority is to pick the best team for the WC . By the time the SA20 is done, we want to give the guys some gametime. You put your hand up to do whatever the job the team needs of you. That role (batting at 5 in the third ODI) was needed and out of the three guys at the top I am the most suitable. We wil reflect, my knock in the middle, I would like to maximize, we will look at the percentages and look to start afresh in Dharamsala."

Suryakumar Yadav (India captain): "We bowled first, and there was not enough we could do. We had to bat well, but, they understood the lengths to bowl. Dew did come in and stopped us in our tracks, but we weren't good enough with the ball. We have to learn from the lengths they bowled. Shubman (Gill) and I should have batted better, me in particular. I have to score runs in the coming games. Axar (Patel) was the better choice today, in our opinion, but, it didn't quite click. But let's plan for the next match now." 

Ottneil Baartman (South Africa): "Nothing too fancy (on his bowling plans). Two frontline seamers set the tone for us and allowed me to come in and do my thing. The plan was to come it and bang it into the surface and extract something out of it. The swing bowlers did their thing first up, me and Lutho just tried to use the wobble seam and cross seam, the wicket skidded on. Whenever the captain calls upon you, you need to be ready. Credit to the opening bowlers, whenever a team is 3-4 down in the powerplay, it is hard to come back. Allowed us the backup bowlers to come in"

10:43 PM local time and IST: South Africa win by 51 runs with 5 balls to spare! 

Quinton de Kock 90 (46) | Ottniel Baartman - 4/24 (4)
Tilak Varma 62 (34) | Varun Chakaravarthy - 2/29 (4)

Dew, good pitch to bat on, combination of both and a famed Indian batting line-up - none of these affected South Africa tonight in the 2nd innings! In fact, they have won by a whopping margin, giving the hosts a proper drubbing!

India were supposed to set the tone up front with Abhishek Sharma firing in all cylinders. But, that did not happen. Marco Jansen made sure of that. Shubman Gill and Suryakumar Yadav needed to produce match-winning knocks, that did not happen either. Hardik Pandya needed to come up with another special performance with the bat, unfortunately, it wasn't his night!

And full credit to the Proteas for their fielding effort, and of course, for their brave bowling! Every fast bowler was among the wickets, and George Linde too contributed with some good deliveries. The captaincy from Aiden Markram was top-class!

South Africa were able to nullify each and every threat, but it was only Tilak Varma who stood tall and delayed the inevitable. At a strike rate of over 182, he scored a impressive half-century, but ran out of partners!

India have some questions to answer. The batting order has always been a talking point, but the form of both Shubman Gill and skipper Suryakumar Yadav should start concerning them now!

Matches do come thick and fast, so, you have to put this behind you, but, India better not overlook some of the problems, that may come back to haunt them in the T20 World Cup.

Of course, South Africa have to be congratulated for now being the team with most T20I wins against India! 

19.1 Lungisani Ngidi to Tilak Varma, THAT IS THAT, Tilak Verma holes out too and South Africa win, quite comprehensively by a margin of 51 runs. Tilak goes in a fashion like few of his teammates already have, tries to go over long-on but miscues it straight to Markram who completes another safe catch at long-on. From 157/5 to 162 all-out in a space of 9 balls, India have capitulated and South Africa have come roaring back in New Chandigarh to level the series at 1-1

Lungisani Ngidi [3.0-0-26-1] comes back into the attack.

We have a few South African supporters in the stands and they are thrilled to bits! India have lost 9 wickets and South Africa have something to look up to in this over now - to take the final wicket! 

18.6 Ottniel Baartman to Varun Chakaravarthy, ANOTHER ONE GOES, taken by Markram at long-on this time. 3 in the over for Baartman, he finishes with 4/24. In the slot, Chakaravarthy swings, reminiscent of his famous six in the TNPL but finds Markram at the fence at long-on.

18.5 Ottniel Baartman to Varun Chakaravarthy, short ball into the surface, Chakaravarthy pulls but gets a top-edge on the pull. Runs down fine to the man in the deep, they do not run