It’s a delight to look at Quinton de Kock bat. The trendy opener unfurled loads of his signature pictures on the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh Stadium on Thursday to attain a useful 46-ball 90 (5×4, 7×6) as South Africa beat India by 51 runs within the second T20I.
Requested to bat first, the Proteas took full toll of a mediocre bowling present from India to amass 213 for 4 in 20 overs.
De Kock contributed the lion’s share of the runs, as soon as once more displaying why he is among the most feared openers in white-ball cricket.
Whereas Reeza Hendricks (8, 10b) and Aiden Markram (29, 26b, 1×4, 2×6) discovered it tough to get going early, de Kock had no such points, peppering the deep square-leg boundary with ease and panache.
Yuvraj Singh, whose stand was unveiled together with Harmanpreet Kaur right here, would have been taken down the reminiscence lane watching among the fashionable leg-side sixes de Kock unleashed.
Issues appeared ominous for India as South Africa reached the midway stage of the innings at 90 for one.
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The opener’s most authoritative stroke of the night, a six over Arshdeep Singh’s head appeared to rattle the left-arm pacer. Arshdeep (none for 54) misplaced his bearings and bowled seven wides in a 13-ball eleventh over which went for 18 runs. The stay telecast additionally confirmed India head coach Gautam Gambhir dropping his cool over Arshdeep’s continued lack of management.
Markram bought into the act quickly, hitting back-to-back sixes off Varun Chakaravarthy (two for 29) down the bottom. His third try, off the final ball of the over, wasn’t profitable as Varun had the Proteas skipper mishit one straight to deep midwicket.
De Kock’s blitzkrieg lastly got here to an finish when he ran himself out after edging the ball to wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma, who rapidly dislodged the bails as soon as his reverse quantity took a few steps, not understanding the place the ball had gone.
After a few quiet overs, Donovan Ferreira (30 n.o., 16b, 1×4, 3×6) and David Miller (20 n.o., 12b, 2×4, 1×6) went after Jasprit Bumrah (none for 45) and Arshdeep because the guests slammed 49 runs off the final three overs, basically batting India out of the match.
India conceded as many as 22 extras, together with 16 wides, which added to South Africa’s momentum.
The consequence was a foregone conclusion as soon as the host misplaced Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav inside 4 overs.
India could also be becoming concerned with the batting type of its skipper and his deputy forward of the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Axar Patel’s promotion to No. 3 didn’t bear fruit because the Indian chase went nowhere. With 133 wanted off the final 10 overs (six wickets in hand), India’s hopes of victory have been all however over.
Solely Tilak Varma (62, 34b, 2×4, 5×6) gave a combat as India was bowled out for 162 in 19.1 overs. The think-tank can have so much to ponder over because the bandwagon heads additional north to Dharamshala.
Revealed on Dec 11, 2025