SA vs IND 2018: South African opener Reeza Hendricks credits Bhuvneshwar Kumar after taking India to victory

Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked his maiden five-wicket haul (5-24) against South Africa on Sunday.

Reeza Hendricks | Getty Images

South African batsman –Reeza Hendricks lavished praise on Indian seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar,  who swung the ball both ways efficiently, with his inswingers more effective than outswing, after his maiden five-wicket haul (5-24) which helped India to win the T20 International series opener by 28 runs at Wanderers on Sunday.

The Proteas right-hander, who scored 70 off 50 balls, said Bhuvneshwar consistently hit the right areas and didn’t give the batsmen anything to score off, which cost the hosts first T20I against India.

As per PTI, Hendricks said, “He (Bhuvneshwar) was just consistent in his areas which was pretty much giving us nothing to score off. So we had to be happy with ones and twos at that time. They just executed their plans well and kept it very simple. That's pretty much it compared to what we did.”

Virat Kohli –led Indian team had a great start in the power play, scoring78/2 in the first six overs which set them up for 203/5, while South Africa were 41 for 2 after the power play overs.  Hendricks said on South Africa's performance in the powerplays, “Obviously their power play was much better than ours. Looking back now that's where we lost it.”

The opener had an 81-run partnership with Farhaan Behardien but it was not enough to change the game against India as they bowling very tight lines.

The 28-year-old said, “Conditions were very good for batting. But Indians bowled really well. So I started slowly and then I had to get myself in and like I said, take it as deep as possible, with the wickets falling around. I managed to do that but would have loved to see the team home.”

Hendricks signed off by saying, “As an opening batsman, we obviously try to get a start, try and capitalize in the first six and then take it deep as possible. They obviously bowled well, we lost a few wickets so that meant obviously we had to stabilize the innings and build a few partnerships and try to take it as deep as possible.”

 
 

By Rashmi Nanda - 19 Feb, 2018

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