India skipper Suryakumar Yadav heaped praise on spinner Varun Chakravarthy for his five-wicket haul during the second T20I against South Africa in Gqeberha on Sunday (November 10).
Chakaravarthy returned with the figures of 5 for 17 in his four overs. His sensational spell reduced the Proteas to 66/6 in the chase of 125, but Tristan Stubbs (47*) and Gerald Coetzee (19*) held their nerves to take the hosts over the line with three wickets in hand and an over to spare.
"In a T20, someone getting a five-for while defending 125 is incredible. Varun has been waiting for this for a long time, working hard on his bowling, and everyone enjoyed it," Suryakumar said at the post-match presentation.
Asked to bat first, the Men in Blue managed to post a modest total of 124/6 on the board. It was a disappointing display with the bat as no one managed to touch the 40-run mark.
"You always have to back whatever total you get. Of course, in a T20 game you don't wanna get 120, but proud of the way we bowled," Suryakumar said.
"Two games to go, lot of entertainment left. 1-1 going into Jo'burg gonna be a lot of fun."
South African captain Aiden Markram hailed his bowlers for their excellent execution of plans.
"I thought we bowled really well, some really good plans and our bowlers executed really well," Markram said.
"From the batting point of view, you want to break it at the mid-way stage but it didn't work out. Sometimes when you lose wickets in a cluster it doesn't look pretty. We need to take it on the chin, we are definitely going to keep our brand of cricket going."
In reply, the Proteas were reeling at 86/7 before Stubbs and Coetzee added 42 runs for the eighth wicket to seal the deal.
"Fortunately the run rate never got away from us. I had 30 (runs) in mind to get off the last three, and the dew came in to help us also," said Stubbs, who was adjudged the Player of the Match.
"Coetzee came in and played that innings in the end and we got over the line. He (Coetzee) walked in and said we can win this. It was always two hits away being back to run-a-ball.
"I just tried to breathe. It's my mom's birthday so there were 20-30 people who came to watch the game. This is my favourite place to play cricket. I was nervous, so I was trying to control by breathing."
(With PTI Inputs)
