T20 World Cup 2022, Match 30: India vs South Africa - Talking points and Who Said What?

South Africa registered their second win of the T20 World Cup 2022 Super 12 stage by defeating India and have moved on to the top of the points table in Group 2. Earlier in the game, India did not have the best of starts as they lost their skipper Rohit Sharma in just the fourth over of the innings.

After getting rid of Rohit, Lungi Ngidi bagged another wicket of KL Rahul in the same over and left India in a spot of bother. In form batter, Virat Kohli hit two boundaries before Ngidi got the better of him. Deepak Hooda, who was included in the side at the expense of Axar Patel did not last long either.  

Hardik Pandya fell to a good catch from Kagiso Rabada and India were once tottering at 49 for 5. However, Suryakumar Yadav played a sublime knock of 68 off 40 balls on a tricky wicket to bat and bailed India out of trouble with the support of Dinesh Karthik. His (Suryakumar's) innings was tremendous considering the circumstances and the situation India was in. For South Africa, it was Ngidi, who made the most of the conditions on offer with a four-wicket haul. 

Despite the brilliance from Yadav, India could manage just 133 on the board in their 20 overs. The Indian bowlers needed to be on target straightaway and a superb spell of swing bowling from Arshdeep Singh upfront removed Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw early.

Temba Bavuma yet again failed and the Proteas looked in complete disarray. Until the halfway mark, it looked like India were bossing the game, however, David Miller and Aiden Markram hit half-centuries and helped the Proteas get over the line by five wickets. Here are the talking points from the game.

KL Rahul’s horrid run continues at top 

KL Rahul was yet again dismissed early for a 14 ball-nine and he needs to pull up his socks soon. The right-hander has been under scrutiny for his consistency in recent times and certainly, hasn’t been giving the start India would have wanted from him. Given his match-winning abilities, the management will look to back him in the remainder of the games, however, it might not be too long until they take a decision on him. 

South Africa's middle order comes to the rescue

An excellent partnership between David Miller and Aiden Markram brought back South Africa into the game as they saw off the new ball by taking the time initially. After the tenth over mark, Markram started to flourish with boundaries in almost every over and it helped the required rate come down considerably. While Markram perished after a half-century, it was Miller's turn to step up and take his side home. 

Winning skipper, Temba Bavuma said

(At the 10-over mark) The discussion was to try and up the intent. When you do that, that's when opportunities come your way. Fortunately things did go our way and we were able to get that momentum. Our batting line-up is in good form barring myself. It's a batting unit that's been together for a while. To come through in pressure moments will boost the guys' confidence. We watched the games that were being played here and decided on the lengths. The variable bounce assisted us. We backed our execution, fortunately it came off for us. We don't like that tag (favourites), we've come into the tournament as not the favourites. We'll keep flying under the radar. It's important we keep improving and that's exactly what we are doing.

Losing skipper, Rohit Sharma said

We expected that the pitch will have something in it. We knew that there'll be a lot of help for the seamers, that's why it wasn't an easy target to chase. We fell a little short with the bat. We fought well, but South Africa were better today. When you see that score (40/3 in ten), you'll always think you're in the game. That was a match-winning partnership from Markram and Miller. We were a little poor in the field, we gave so many chances and we weren't clinical. We were just not good enough. The last two games, we were pretty good in the field. We couldn't hold our chances, we missed a few run-outs. We need to keep our heads high and take a learning from this game. I've seen what happens with the spinners in the last over, so I wanted to go the other way. If I can finish Ash, I just wanted to make sure that the seamers are bowling the right overs. You have to use it at some point. With the new batter, it was the perfect time for him to bowl. Miller played some good shots as well.

Player of the match, Lungi Ngidi said

It's pretty nerve-wracking when games get down that close, as a bowler you can't do much and just have to believe in the boys. This is one of my biggest dreams, to get something like this (award) at the World Cup and help the country win a game, will cherish it for a long time. It comes with watching a lot of games being played here, fortunately I have played here as well and had that information (on how to bowl). We saw Pakistan bowl earlier and pretty much had to do the same thing. After the 10-over break, Markram moved the game forward and David followed him. That partnership brought us close and then David finished it off.

Click here to know the T20 World Cup Points Table and  T20 World Cup Schedule updates.