South Africa vs India 2018: 2nd T20I, Player Ratings
South Africa pegged one back in the second T20I, after a slew of rather meek surrenders, to beat the visitors by six wickets, courtesy a well-rounded performance by the team. Now that India's five-match unbeaten streak in T20Is has culminated, the series is well poised for an exciting finish. The hosts remained in control of the game throughout, barring the late assault in the Indian innings. Here are the match ratings for the players on both sides.
India:
Shikhar Dhawan: 6.5/10
Dhawan started with a bang but did not last long, much like Rohit in the previous game. He struck three fours and two sixes in his brief stay and was looking to go big yet again when he holed out to Farhaan Behardien off JP Duminy's innocuous off-spin.
Rohit Sharma: 0/10
Rohit tried to capitalize on the pace of Dala from ball one but was comprehensively trapped in front. In the field too, he could not impress and he ends up with a duck for his ratings as well.
Suresh Raina: 7/10:
Raina started with a gingerly edge but soon found his touch. He was content in playing the second fiddle when Dhawan was launching the assault, but the fall of two quick wickets disturbed his momentum. He was also a live wire in the field, as he has always been.
Virat Kohli: 2/10
Captain Kohli had a rare failure with the bat, scoring only a run off five deliveries. From the captaincy point too, he missed a trick by going in with four bowlers and Pandya as he had no backup in case of a possible failure. Unlike his counterpart, he also refrained from giving his part-timers a chance to derail the South African momentum.
Manish Pandey: 9/10
Pandey played the best innings of his career after India was in a spot of bother at 90-4. He paced the innings perfectly to avoid another collapse and accelerated towards the end with aplomb. He would be gutted that this gem of an innings did not lead to his side's win.
MS Dhoni: 8.5/10
Dhoni was calm as always in the crease, gauging the nature of the pitch and rotating the strike till he launched into the hulk mode in the last ten balls. He plundered runs with sheer brute force and put the South Africans in the back foot at the halfway stage.
Hardik Pandya: 6/10
Pandya did a tidy job as the fifth bowler as he gave away just 31 runs and got rid of the dangerous David Miller even before he could settle down.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar: 6.5/10
Bhuvneshwar was tight as always in his opening spell but the South African batsmen, having fresh memories of his fifer in the last match, played him out warily. As a result, he could not find the breakthrough that his captain so desperately wanted.
Jaydev Unadkat: 6.5/10
Unadkat's tendency to bowl short may have fetched him wickets, but he also leaked away runs in plenty in the process. He can't be rated down though because the onus was on him to fetch the breakthroughs.
Shardul Thakur: 6/10
Shardul had figures identical to that of Pandya, so he gets identical ratings as well.
Yuzvendra Chahal: 1/10
Chahal had an off day, by all standards of the game. He was not able to put a foot right in the entire match as he struggled to grip the ball well in the wet outfield. Flight, his primary weapon, was well neutralized as the South Africans motored on to a comprehensive win.