South Africa thrashed India by 7 wickets on Thursday (June 09) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium despite the hosts posting 211 on the board. India was on its way to winning the match but owing to the man who is in the form of his life David Miller (64* off 31 balls) and later Rassie van der Dussen’s (75* off 46 balls) powerful striking in the slog overs, that wasn’t the case.
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Dussen, on the other hand, was hitting at under 100 at one point but came through in the end. By the end of the game, the 33-year-strike old's rate had soared to 163.04. He thanked Miller after the match, saying the southpaw helped him get through the difficult initial period.
“Pretty good. We had a good week of preparation in these conditions, bit sticky there in the middle but David’s such a good player, he pulled me through that little patch. We knew if we were there till the end then we would win it. I always knew I was just two boundaries away, it was not because of lack of intent, I was clear in my mind what I wanted to do but it didn’t come off, you need to be mentally tough through that patch and not give it away when you take 30 balls your team expects you to do something special,” he told Star Sports.
“I have had a game plan that has worked for me in the last few years, the good thing of our dugout and coaching team is that they trust, I was a touch slow today and need to work on that,” he added.
Meanwhile, South Africa surprised Indian bowlers by sending all-rounder Dwayne Pretorius at the third position. The right-hander took his pinch-hitting duties seriously, slamming the bowlers all over the field.
“Dwaine had clear instructions and he gave us that flying start, we knew if we bat well we could chase this and to have that belief. Sometimes the strangest things that make a difference, seems like it (change of bat changed his luck).”
Ishan Kishan's half-century (76 off 48 balls) was followed by skipper Rishabh Pant's 29 off 16 balls and Hardik Pandya's 31* off 12 balls with Pandya picking up his international career from where he left off in IPL, as the 'Men in Blue' posted a mammoth total of 211/4.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, and Akshar Patel took 1 wicket each.
