Image Credit source: BCCI
The Indian team lost the opportunity to level the series with a 4-wicket loss in the Cuttack T20. South Africa are now leading 2-0 in the five-match series.
Rishabh Pant may be taking over the command of the Indian cricket team on a temporary basis, but he too must have done well by himself and with the team. While captaining India in international cricket, he has to face defeat in his first two matches. After Delhi, Pant was disappointed in the second T20 match between India and South Africa in Cuttack too. Like Delhi, the top reason for the team’s defeat in Cuttack was clear that this time the batsmen disappointed, but Captain Pant mentioned another aspect and gave a message to those players to improve performance.
South Africa defeated India by 4 wickets in the T20 played in Cuttack on Sunday 12 June to take a 2-0 lead in the series. Batting first, India had scored 148 for 6 wickets. The team’s batsmen were disappointed, but the bowlers got off to a good start. South Africa’s score was 57 for three in the first 10 overs. In this, Bhuvneshwar Kumar got off to a great start by taking the first three wickets in the powerplay. Even after this, the team got defeated.
10-15 runs short, poor bowling in the second half
After the team’s defeat, Indian captain Rishabh Pant said that Team India’s score was 10-15 runs short and despite a good start while bowling, things did not go according to the team in the last 10 overs. Pant said,
Batting first, we made 10-15 runs short of the score. Then Bhuvi and other fast bowlers though bowled very well in the beginning. But in the second half of the innings, things did not go according to us. We didn’t bowl well after 10-11 overs, which changed the course of the match.
Spinners have to perform better
Pant then talked about the aspect that disappointed the team in both the consecutive matches. Pant sent a message to the spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Axar Patel to improve their performance in the coming matches. They said, The spinners have to perform better in the match. In the last three matches, we will try to win.
India’s three leading pacers, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel combined for 10 overs and took 5 wickets for just 47 runs. At the same time, Yuzvendra Chahal and Patel gave 68 runs in 5 overs and took only 1 wicket. In Delhi too, both the spinners were heavily thrashed.
: Language Inputs