Kamal Ghorui
Opener Ishan Kishan lost his wicket in the first over of India’s innings and was out for a duck in the Super 8 clash against South Africa in Ahmedabad on Sunday. Markram floated a slower off-break that drifted away. Kishan went for a big slog across the line, misread the turn and sent it high toward cover. Ryan Rickelton completed a clean catch. Previously, in the group stage of the T20 World Cup, Kishan’s opening partner Abhishek Sharma had been dismissed for ducks in all three matches he played — against the USA, Pakistan and the Netherlands. Against South Africa, he scored 15 runs, while Kishan was out for zero.
Earlier, David Miller rolled back the years with exhilarating strokes but Jasprit Bumrah‘s superb initial and end act restricted South Africa to a par score of 187 for seven in the Super Eights game of the T20 World Cup in Ahmedabad.Miller, standing on the cusp of 37, struck 63 off 35 balls and got fine support from young Dewald Brevis (45 off 29 balls) after Bumrah (3/15 in 4 overs) and Arshdeep Singh (2/28 in 4 overs) had reduced the Proteas to 20 for 3 inside the first four overs.Bumrah, who got two wickets in his first two overs for just seven runs, took one more wicket giving away just 8 more runs across the 17th and 19th over that he sent down.In all he bowled 12 dot balls, amounting to two maiden overs.The Proteas did find themselves down in the dumps but veteran Miller and young Brevis launched a counter-attack that was both swift and brutal.They added 97 in just 8.2 overs and the hallmark of their batting was the technique against spinner Varun Chakravarthy (1/47 in 4 overs), who was made to look pedestrian on the day.Between the duo, they clobbered half a dozen of maximums (three apiece) but just when the black-soil strip at the Motera started helping the stroke players, the duo got out.It was Tristan Stubbs (44 not out off 24 balls), who took South Africa past the 185-run mark with a couple of huge sixes off the final two deliveries of the innings bowled by Hardik Pandya.
