India, India Cricket Team, South Africa, South Africa Cricket Team, India Vs South Africa 2022, Dinesh Karthik, Cricket
India suffered a second successive loss in the ongoing five-match T20I series at home against South Africa on Sunday night. Having failed to defend over 200 runs in the first match, India were well beaten in the 2nd T20I as South Africa comfortably chased down the 149-run target with four wickets in hand and 10 balls to spare. Apart from Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer and Dinesh Kathik, other Indian batters failed to make a meaningful contribution the bat. Karthik played a handy unbeaten knock down the order to help India put up a fighting total but the decision to send him in after Axar Patel didn't please quite many fans on Twitter.
Axar Patel struggled to get going with the bat, scoring just 10 runs off 11 balls.
Shreyas Iyer, who was the top-scorer for India in the match with a 40-run knock off 35 balls, defended the decision to promote Axar Patel.
"See, it is definitely something we strategised earlier on as well. We had seven overs left, Axar Patel is someone who can take singles, who can keep rotating the strike and we did not require someone to come in and straight away start hitting from ball one at that point of time," Iyer said in the post-match press conference.
"Even DK (Dinesh Karthik) can do that, obviously but, DK has been a real good asset for us after 15 overs where he can come in and straight away slog the ball. Even he was finding it difficult today to start on. The wicket played a huge role in today's game, I feel that strategy we will be utilising in the next game as well, that's what we have been thriving on. If you see the past games, we have done this move plenty of times so yeah, it is one of those days," added the Indian batter.
Having lost the first two games of the series, India face a must-win situation in the third T20I on Tuesday that will be played at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
Source:- NDTV
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India, India Cricket Team, South Africa, South Africa Cricket Team, India Vs South Africa 2022, Dinesh Karthik, Cricket
