India beat South Africa by 7 wickets in Chandigarh on Wednesday in their second T20I, thanks in no small part to another fine innings from their captain, Virat Kohli, who scored 72 not out. In doing so, he carved a place for himself in the record books, overtaking his team mate, Rohit Sharma, to become the leading run scorer of all time in T20 internationals.
After the first match in the series in Dharamsala was rained off on Sunday without a ball being played, South Africa named a largely experimental side, handing debuts to three players – Anrich Nortje, Bjorn Fortuin, and Temba Bavuma. It was India though who won the toss, and invited the visitors to bat first.
South Africa got off to a reasonable start, with captain Quinton de Kock and Reeza Hendricks putting on 31 for the opening wicket, until Hendricks became the first man to fall, caught by Washington Sundar off the bowling of Deepak Chahar. De Kock and Bavuma then shared a stand of 57 for the second wicket before de Kock was out for 52, caught by Kohli, with Navdeep Saini the bowler. Five balls later, Rassie van der Dussen was caught and bowled by Ravindra Jadeja, as the South African innings began to lose momentum.
Bavuma and David Miller put on 36 for the 4th wicket, but it took them five overs to do so, and the loss of Bavuma for 49, who had hit one six, further slowed them down, with Chahar claiming his second wicket, Jadeja supplying the catch. Miller was then bowled by Hardik Pandya for 18, and the pair of Dwaine Pretorious and Andile Phehlukwayo could only add a further 20 between them, as the South African innings closed on 149 – 5. Pretorious was undefeated on 10, and Phehlukwayo 8 not out.
In reply, Rohit and Shakhar Dhawan made an almost identical start, putting on 33 for the first wicket, until Rohit was lbw to Phehlukwayo for 12.
Rohit’s dismissal brought Kohli to the crease, and he and Dhawan effectively took the game away from South Africa with a stand of 61.Dhawan, who had struck one six, was caught by Miller for 40 off the spinner Tabraiz Shamsi, who then turned catcher when he dismissed Risbabh Pant, with Fortuin the bowler this time.
That was the end of the alarms for the home side though, as Kohli and Shreyas Iyer cruised to victory with an unbroken partnership of 47. They reached their target with an over to spare. Iyer was 16 not out at the end, whilst Kohli’s innings contained 3 sixes and 4 fours.
The two sides now head to Bengaluru for the third match in the series on Sunday.
