Tristan Stubbs and Gerald Coetzee survived a Varun Chakaravarthy storm in the middle overs with the bat to propel South Africa to a close victory in Gqeberha in the second T20I on Sunday, November 10. At 66/6 and 86/7, the Proteas seemed like a fish out of the water against the Indian spinners with Chakaravarthy literally spinning a web. None of Heinrich Klaasen or David Miller could penetrate the web before Coetzee and Stubbs played a calculative attack to finish the game with an unbeaten stand of 42 runs.
Ryan Rickelton and Reeza Hendricks started off in a hurry before Arshdeep Singh put the breaks on the scoring with the wicket of the former. Markram and Hendricks didn't add much in the next few overs before both fell to Chakaravarthy, who has been nothing short of sensational on his comeback trail.
Stubbs coming in at No 4 held one end up and a surprise promotion for Marco Jansen, helped the Proteas delay the entry point for Heinrich Klaasen and David Miller with Chakaravarthy with his tails up.
The short 20-run stand ended with Chakaravarthy cleaning up Jansen. Losing Klaasen and David Miller in consecutive deliveries could have been almost a match-turning moment in the game as Chakaravarthy registered his maiden T20I fifer before Stubbs and Coetzee began pegging India back.
Stubbs played around with Coetzee being the aggressor. The yin-yang partnership worked well for South Africa as the Proteas got over the line, levelling the series 1-1.
Earlier, Indian batters with their high-risk approach failed to counter South Africa's disciplined bowling on a surface, that had something for everyone - seam, swing and spin. India's innings began with Sanju Samson, the centurion of Durban getting out for a duck before Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav too followed his openers as India were three down for 15 by the fourth over.
Losing wickets in heaps meant that the rescue act kept getting longer and the attack kept getting delayed. Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel did their bit in the end but 124 was never going to challenge the Proteas, which was ultimately the case.
Chakaravarthy's fifer may have come in a lost cause, first for any bowler for the country in T20Is, however, he has surely put his hand up to become a permanent member of the Indian T20 side. India would just have to recalibrate their over-aggressive approach as the Centurion T20I becomes critical as if South Africa win, the visitors won't be able to win the series, they may only be able to draw it.
