Shikhar Dhawan (7/10) : After failing to open account in the first over of the match, Dhawan brought his monstrous self to the fore in the second over and smashed Morris for 20 in his second. However, he was guilty of playing a rash shot to the hands of mid-on fielder Farhaan Behardien when he was on 24. After Rohit Sharma’s dismissal for a duck, a big score from him was due, and he would really be disappointed with his performance today. Â
Rohit Sharma (4/10) : Yet another disappointing performance from the Indian vice-captain. After a disastrous ODI series, Rohit continued his terrible run of form to the T20I series. Today, while he was given a chance to redeem himself on a rather easy batting surface, he was caught plumb by Junior Dala for a duck.
Suresh Raina (7.5/10) : The Chennai Super Kings star had a better outing in Centurion and after the top-order’s failure, he capitalised on the bad balls to score a meaningful 30 off 24 balls. Raina was a powerful slogger, but today, he showed the other side of his batting by playing more drives and cuts to score as much as he did.Â
Virat Kohli (5/10) : In what was an incredible tour for him, Kohli has really failed to unleash his destructive self in this T20I series. Today, coming in after the dismissal of both the openers, the onus was once again on his shoulders, but today was not his day. Junior Dala extracted an edge off his blade but he would be happy that Manish Pandey and MS Dhoni took India to a good total.
Manish Pandey (9/10) : Pandey was not at his best in the first match and managed to score a run-a-ball 29 despite the stage was all set for a late-order fireworks. However, he corrected the wrongs today and put up an exhibition of shots at a stadium he had the fond memories with. Centurion was the stage where Pandey, playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore, became the first Indian to score a century in the IPL. Today, with top-three being out for dismal scores, he made a brilliant partnership with MS Dhoni to end up with an unbeaten 79 – an innings that he must have been proud of.
MS Dhoni (8/10) : Dhoni have been undergoing a terrible run of form in the series and his troubles in hitting big shots immediately on arrival was a constant problem today. However, his innings today, was of a different taste. Knowing that there was enough over to open his arms, he kept on finding regular boundaries and managed to score his second T20I half-century. His innings was important in the context of India’s batting perspective.
Hardik Pandya (6.5/10) : While the all-rounder didn’t get a chance to bat today, he was mediocre with the ball and while other pacers managed to extract some amount of swing, he was unable to do so and was at the receiving end of Klassen carnage.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (7/10) : Coming from a fifer in the first T20I, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was supposed to carry the momentum forward and his first over was exactly that. He didn’t allow any rooms for batsmen and kept bowling on a single channel and conceded only 12 runs in first two overs.Â
Jaydev Unadkat (7/10) : It was a good day at the office for the Saurashtra pacer. While other bowlers were rendered ineffective, he managed to pick two top-order wickets in the form of JJ Smuts and Heinrich Klaasen. However, Yuzvendra Chahal’s bad performance meant his effort went in vain.
Yuzvendra Chahal (3/10) : A day to forget for the wrist-spinner. Due to the wet ball, he failed to extract any amount of turn off the surface and that was sufficient for the South African batsmen to punish him for the same. Chahal conceded 64 runs in four overs to cap off one of the most forgettable days of his career.
Shardul Thakur (7/10) : The debutant showed little signs of nerves and used his slower balls and cutters to good effect. While he conceded only 31 runs, he could have bowled more wicket-taking balls rather than bowling at outside the off-stump line. These are the lessons that all debutants take forward and Thakur would want to correct it in the next game. Â
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