Bhubaneswar: The second match of the Twenty20 cricket series between India and South Africa will be played today.
The match will be played at Barabati Stadium from 7 pm. The weather is favorable for competition. The temperature is reported to rise to 37 degrees Celsius. A total of two Twenty20 matches were played at the Barabati Stadium. The score did not cross 100 in both the matches. Seven years ago, India were bowled out for 92 in a match once morest South Africa here. They lost by six wickets that day. This is the fourth lowest score in India’s Twenty20. In another match played here, Sri Lanka were all out for 87 runs.
The game writers conclude that the run-rate will still be low. Victory today is essential for India to hold on following losing the first match. Only Kagiso Rabada and David Miller are still on the team that beat India. Among the Indian players, Akshar Patel and Bhuvneshwar Kumar continue to play. Kagiso Rabada needs just one more wicket to take 50 wickets in the Twenty20s. Rabada is set to become the first South African bowler to break the record following Imran Tahir.
Neither Umran Malik nor Arshadeep Singh is likely to make his debut as India do not want to make changes in the final XI. South Africa still play without Aidin Markram, who has been infected with the Kovid-19 virus. Markram will not be able to play the next game. Due to the favorable atmosphere for the pacers, it is possible that Keshav Maharaj will be dropped and Lungi Ngidi or Marco Jansen will be dropped.
Probable team: India – Ishant Kishan, Rituraj Geekwad, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (captain), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Akshar Patel, Hershel Patel, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yusvendra.
Probables: South Africa: Quinton de Kok, Themba Bauma (captain), Razi van der Dusan, David Miller, Tristan Stbs, Dwayne Pretorius, Weil Parnell, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi / Keshav Maharaj, Maharaj.
India are trailing 1-0 in the five – match series. It was a very disappointing defeat in the first match. India lost by a huge margin of 211 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. The defeat was due to the poor form of the bowlers. After the match, the performance of the bowling line-up was severely criticized by many. Rishabh, who came into the captaincy following Lokesh Rahul was injured, might not use all the six bowlers in the playing XI. He shone with the bat in the first match but his performance as captain was only average. In the last match, leg-spinner Yusvendra Chahal bowled only 2.1 overs. Chahal’s over gave India the victory. Hardik did not give Pandya a chance following the first over. Rishabh was unable to give instructions to his teammates.
