After scoring 211 in the first T20I, Team India didn’t have a great day at the office in the second T20I as the hosts scored just 148/6 in 20 overs against South Africa in Cuttack. This total proved not to be enough as South Africa chased it down with four wickets in hand and 10 balls left. Eyebrows went up as Axar Patel was sent off for Dinesh Karthik and the move didn’t pay off as the southpaw left after scoring 10 from 11 balls, while Karthik went unbeaten at 30.
It was due to Karthik’s blitz in the final that India managed to go past the 140 run. Former South Africa captain Graeme Smith was left furious at the call to send Axar for Karthik, even calling the all-rounder a “little batter”.
“In what world does an all-rounder, who is a little bit and a bit batter, get ahead of a frontline batter? I just don’t understand this. Dinesh Karthik is one of the most experienced cricketers in India, how many matches he has played for India, over 160. Don’t mind the IPL, everything else he’s played. How can you send Axar Patel ahead of him. This is just mind boggling to me,” Smith told Star Sports after the second T20I between India and South Africa .
Former India captain Sunil Gavaskar also said Karthik should have come for Axar and sometimes the labels like “finisher” don’t help one side.
“Absolutely, for sure. There is no doubt about it (whether Dinesh Karthik should have passed Axar Patel). Sometimes there are those labels like a finisher. And when you talk about a finisher, you think he doesn’t come until after the 15th He can’t come over in the 12th or the 13th. And we’ve seen this happen in the IPL too. A lot of teams have kept their big hitters only the last 4-5 overs,” said Gavaskar.
“If they had been sent before, because they have the ability to work the ball around, they don’t necessarily have to hit sixes from the moment they come in. But the fact that they get into the hitting area, they move the ball around and they get the sense of what the field is doing, then those last five overs where they can toss their bat around become much easier,” he added.
In the second T20I, South Africa won the toss and chose to bowl. India scored 148/6 in 20 overs with Shreyas Iyer as the top scorer with 40.
Dinesh Karthik went unbeaten on 30 from 21 balls. For South Africa, Anrich Nortje returned with two wickets.
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India was unable to defend the total even after Bhuvneshwar Kumar took four wickets.
India and South Africa will face each other in the third T20I on Tuesday.
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