Indian skipper Virat Kohli wants to take risks and put the team under uncomfortable situations to prepare them before the upcoming 2020 T20I World Cup in Australia. Team management has deployed a lot of new faces into the team so that they can gain some international experience before getting on the biggest stage.
India comfortably won the second T20I against South Africa at Mohali by seven wickets after the first was washed out due to wet outfield at Dharamsala without a ball being bowled. With a 1-0 lead in the three-match series, Kohli decided to put his team under testing conditions in the final match by opting to bat first after winning the toss, even though the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Benglauru favours the team batting second.
"I know it's a chasing ground, that's what teams do here in the Indian T20 League, too. But heading into the World Cup we want to strengthen areas and put ourselves under pressure," Kohli said at the toss.
"Of course, results are always going to be a priority, but we need to push ourselves out of our comfort zone with the World Cup coming up."
Batting first, India’s top batsmen Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli got out cheaply. Shikhar Dhawan was looking in good touch and scored 36 before getting caught by Temba Bavuma off Tabraiz Shamsi. Rishabh Pant once again disappointed coming in at number four as his careless shot selection woes at the start of his innings continued.
Read: 'Fearless' Pant cannot be 'careless', says India coach
Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja tried playing some big shots but South African bowlers didn’t give them the space to open their hands. India finished at 134 for nine.
South Africa after executing their plans well in the bowling, came out to chase with captain De Kock stepping in to get the job done. His knock of 79 not out off 52 balls was complemented with opening partner Reeza Hendricks’ 28 and Temba Bavuma’s 27 not out. The Proteas won the match by nine wickets in the 17th over, levelling the three-match series at 1-1.
Read: De Kock, Beuran star as South Africa draw T20I series with India
“We will have games like this, where we don’t execute what we want. But as long as the intent is there to improve, we’ll be in a good zone. I think South Africa bowled well, the pitch suited them in the first innings, and we weren’t able to read the tempo of the game well,” Kohli said at the post-match ceremony.
Both teams will now face each other in the three-match Test series starting from 2nd October.
Feature Image Courtesy: AFP/ Sajjad Hussain
